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The use of salicylates dates back 2,500 years to Hippocrates’s recommendation of willow bark (from which a salicylate is derived) as an aid to the pains of childbirth. However, overdosage of salicylates can harm body fluids, electrolytes, the CNS, the GI tract, the ears, the lungs, the blood, the liver, and the kidneys and cause coma or death.
Famous people who died from poisoning or drug overdose include, Adolf Hitler, Socrates, Juan Ponce de Leon, Marilyn Monroe, Judy Garland, and John Belushi.
Aspirin is the most widely used drug in the world. It has even been recognized as such by the Guinness Book of World Records.
For pediatric patients, intravenous fluids are the most commonly cited products involved in medication errors that are reported to the USP.
Malaria was not eliminated in the United States until 1951. The term eliminated means that no new cases arise in a country for 3 years.