On July 15th, the FDA issued a warning that Cipro (and other drugs) should not be prescribed for urinary tract infections unless there are no other options.

The FDA’s new “black box” warnings apply to fluoroquinolone antibiotics, a class that includes Johnson & Johnson’s Levaquin, Bayer drug Cipro, Merck & Co.’s Avelox and other brands, as well as generics.

The class of meds already carries a boxed warning that the drugs increase the risk of tendonitis and tendon rupture–added to the label in 2008–and cautionary language about the risk of serious nerve damage.

Read more here.