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CDC
CDC officials, including Dr. John Jernigan, center, discuss the ongoing outbreak of fungal meningitis in the U.S.
A few more people have been diagnosed with a rare form of fungal meningitis linked to contaminated back pain injections, federal health officials said Friday.
A case was reported in Texas, bringing the total number of patients diagnosed to 185, with 14 deaths, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. Overall, patients have been diagnosed in 12 states.
The CDC and the Food and Drug Administration are working to confirm the source of the contamination, which is traced to three lots of steroid injections made at a Framingham, Massachusetts pharmacy. All of the drugs made at the pharmacy, the New England Compounding Center, have been recalled.
The CDC suggests more cases will turn up. The two molds that have been found in patients grow slowly and can cause very subtle symptoms, at least at first.
“Patients need to remain vigilant for onset of symptoms because fungal infections can be slow to develop. Typically in this outbreak, symptoms have appeared 1 to 4 weeks following injection, but it’s important to know that longer and shorter periods of time between injection and onset of symptoms have been reported,” the CDC said in a statement on its website.
Many of the patients who have died suffered strokes, so doctors may have to go back and check records to see if patients who received the steroid injections died of strokes that may not have been linked to the treatment.
CDC
Two types of fungi have been detected in the ongoing outbreak of meningitis related to contaminated steroid injections. Exserohilum, left, and Aspergillus, right, have been detected in patients.
All of the patients who have been confirmed with the infection got injections in the neck or spine of a steroid called methylprednisolone. There is also one patient in Michigan with an infection in the ankle, and it's not clear yet if he has a fungal infection, the CDC says.
The meningitis cannot be passed to anyone else. Patients who are diagnosed must undergo weeks of infusion with two antifungal drugs.
NECC and a sister company, Ameridose, have closed for the time being. Dr. Madeleine Biondolillo, director of the Massachusetts health department's Bureau of Health Care Safety and Quality, said NECC had broken the rules "This organization chose to apparently violate the licensing regulations under which they were allowed to operate," Biondolillo told reporters in a telephone briefing Thursday.
She and an FDA official said state and federal agencies needed more guidance on how to regulate such pharmacies, which have morphed from small operations licensed to mix drugs on a case-by-case basis to large scale manufacturers.
Reuters reported late on Friday that NECC had cut its work force by at least half, laying off 40 or so workers."The events of the past two weeks are a great tragedy, and the thoughts and prayers of all those connected to New England Compounding Center continue to be with the individuals and families affected," the company said in a statement. "As a result of these events, on Thursday and Friday of this week NECC informed employees of a workforce reduction at the company - a necessary step under the current circumstances."
Related stories:
Compounding pharmacies - heroes or outlaws?
Fungal meningitis worries man who got suspect shots
ERs the front line in fungal meningitis case
Leave a Comment:
It is unfortunate that so many people died because of the contaminated drug. There is no doubt that New England Compounding Center will quickly file for bankruptcy to prevent anyone from getting compensation for the contaminated drug.
This is horrible. It's not like these people don't already have enough pain and suffering to deal with, now this! I'm not a big fan of lawsuits but, damn, this company toast.
"is toast"
I have had 44 of those injection untill I sad NO MORE last year...Good Hunch on my part
I have had 44 of those injections in my back,until last year I said no more...they wer'nt helping.I have had 5 back surgeries with hardware....That was a good hunch on my part not getting any more of them..They HURT LIKE HELL TOO.....
44? that's an awful lot - if you needed that many there must be something else wrong
Not really.
Well CR, I've had over a dozen myself.
All it takes is a chronic condition such as 4 out of 5 lumbar discs being screwed beyond hope combined with degenerative spine disease and arthritis and your surgeon will suggest the shots LONG before you ever get surgery.
You take them in sets of three, two weeks apart, up to twice a year. They didn't ever seem to help me as much as the sticker shock from the out patient surgery even with insurance so I just stopped getting them.
I just live with the constant pain now. It tends to make me a cranky old fart on the bad days but at least I am alive.
This is so awful. And it was preventable. The people behind the company that made this bad batch should be held accountable. They closed up shop, so that gets them off the hook? Bull-twinkies if thats the case. People are dead for crying out loud. Roast the dirtbags. This should be criminal. If this isnt criminal negligence, what is?
This company is located next door to a waste handling company. They are also not regulated by the FED, they are regulated by the state. More deaths will occur when we get rid of big government.
No, no, no... people & businesses will do the right thing. Republican philosophy 101.
I hate job-killing regulations.
so a few (hundred) people die, whatever. [snark]
Interesting that the Republican house and senate of 1997 put a law in place to limit these compounding pharmacies from doing what NECC did. The courts struck it down. Regulation in itself is not bad. Over-regulation is a killer.
The steroid spinal injections are commonly used as a means to relieve the pain of back injury, usually a disk bulge, sufferers. And if you have ever suffered from back pain, you already know that you would do almost anything to relieve your suffering.
I had the injections, twice, about 12-years ago. The injections not only did nothing to relieve my pain, but increased it. My belief is that spinal steroid injection is a plecebo effect, and has no place in the treatment of chronic back pain; a Band-aid to help the insurance company, and not the injured. My neurologist, doctor, surgeon, and chiropractor, all, cannot offer logical contest to that.
Now, although not at risk in this case, I'm filled with pain for those whom have been harmed/killed. I am convinced that the injections of steroid to the spine should be discontinued.
I suppose the only good thing about this situation is that it is fungal meningitis, which is the only type that isn't contageous....still a terrible thing though.
The practice of pharmacy is regulated by the states (as part of the "police power granted by the Constitution). The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) in turn makes policies which govern the state boards (at least to some extent). This archaic regulatory system has been frequently critisized and urgently needs reform. It was the NABP which eliminated the pharmacist/techician ratio requirement. Now, one pharmacist can and must supervise the work of an entire room full of pharmacy technicians. Compounding pharmacies are important and we need them, BUT they need closer regulation and inspection.
All of the management that knowingly broke the laws of the state of MA, should be brought up on manslaughter charges. NECC was only licensed to provide compounds for specific patients, not mass manufacturing for mass distribution. Mass distribution is the job of Pharmaceutical companies, which NECC did not have the licence for. The rules and regulations surrounding a true Pharmaceutical company are much more stringent than they are for a compounding company, because of the wide distribution of a pharmaceutical company can affect thousands, tens of thousands to millions.
NECC shipped out 17,776 vials of the infected drug. How can they ever pass an FDA inspection??? WHo did the FDA think they were shipping all these to? One patient? Or did the FDA inspectors look the other way?? Me thinks I smell graft and corruption.
Yes, they will simply file bankruptcy, and skate away while still driving their fancy cars and living in their big homes while us schmucks lie in hospital beds dying. Or for those of us that received these injections, (mine was September 25th), lie awake in bed wondering if I will get sick. Make an example of NECC and arrest them all, prosecute them and put them away. Stop this utter madness now.
DonaClarkson22
Take your scam and leave it somewhere else. They offer a "money-back guarantee" which tells you right there you have to lay out money to get this "program". In addition, the website you point us to has all these comments supposedly written by different people which is another lie. The comments are all written by the same person, all addresses lead back to one computer.
You are nothing more than a cheap scam artist. Go away or perhaps get a steroid injection.
Good luck to anybody getting money from them except the FDA, this is where the FDA steps in and takes all the cash.
NBC you should fact check before you publish because it's 184 cases of meningitis and 1 peripheral joint infection which is NOT meningitis:
its here 4 cases in n.h.now im waitjing for the dreaded phone call
useally a private number
had one call last nite did not answer
they did not leave message
3 men one woman
40 to 60 years old
im 50
panic mode setting in real quick now......
wife had lumbar puncture last nite
she also had shots
shes 58
guess we stress wait & see