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Subscribe to RSSThe number of deaths from fungal meningitis linked to potentially contaminated steroid injections has risen to 20 and the outbreak has reached a 16th state, New York, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday.
The deadly outbreak of the rare disease showed no signs of abating, as nine new cases of meningitis were reported, bringing the national total to 254, plus three peripheral infections in joints.
Michigan reported its fourth death from meningitis. New cases also were reported in Indiana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio and Tennessee.
The outbreak stems from medications shipped by the New England Compounding Center in Massachusetts. The company faces multiple federal and state investigations and lawsuits over the tainted medications.
Also on Thursday, the Food and Drug Administration said it has confirmed the presence of Exserohilum fungus in one of three lots of steroids used for pain injections from the pharmacy at the center of the widespread meningitis outbreak. That confirms the link between the contaminated drugs and the infections found in most of the afflicted patients.
Testing on the other two implicated lots of the steroid methylprednisolone acetate and other injectable drugs from the New England Compounding Center continues, the agency said.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said there was no firm evidence of infection in any patients beyond those exposed to the contaminated lots. However, FDA officials warned doctors earlier this week to reach out to patients who received any drugs from NECC to check their health status because the agency could not assure that any of the products were sterile.
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And so many folks tell me I shouldn't worry about mass immunization for the flu... the delay in discovering that there is a problem is some kind of incubation period; then after realizing that there is a problem, the time to establish a specific group of the impact, and then the time to track it back to where it originated. THIS IS THE WHY!!! This is a terrible event, and while it doesn't come near the totals of the folks that run to get those flu shots, even one loss of life begs the question as to how you determine something is safe or not. Has anyone established why? I guess what I am asking is who dropped the ball here? Is this a self policing industry? Was it an error of using unsterilized water? I thought that pharmacy's were regulated by the government. Does anyone here have some background that can clarify how this even got out of the facility and into human beings? In the meantime I think I will hide out through flu season!
This was not a "pharmacy." This was a compounding agency and they are not subject to the same regulations. My spinal specialist does not use them for this reason. Since I had spinal injections just a few weeks ago, I am particularly grateful that he does not. While my heart breaks for the patients and their families in this tragedy, one can hope that now regulations will arise and the compounders will no longer hide behind the regulatory loopholes. Compounders originated for very specific circumstances, originally, but they have branched far, far beyond that original intent and therein was the creation of this disaster.
Come on now. Do you know how many people did from the flu 500,000 people a year. I got my shot I want to stay alive
While we're asking questions, could anyone tell my why there is mercury in flu shots?
It's a preservative to stop fungus and other things from growing and has been used for 70 years. The single dose vials that we get our flu shots from don't contain any mercury
And we cannot buy drugs from Canada because they are not safe or FDA approved.
And this is the same government that will run BummerCare. Do you feel good now?
We have a long way to go before the journey is over.
You're right Bill another 4 years
Don't worry Bill if Romney got in I wouldn't be able to afford drugs from Canada. If you go to factcheck .org you will find the truth Obama stretched things a little and Romney all out lied. Try going to a website that is unbiased instead of a conservative one with lies
Well I DO want my Mom and others that are in the age range of needing the help of a flu shot to get them BUT safely! Bless her heart she gets them faithfully.
Ro Mar thank you for explaining it. Not sure where I got confused with it being a pharmacology type business. But that makes sense and explains how they weren't required to submit test batches for screening.
Bill from O... anytime they tell you to sign it first to see what it says... RUN BROTHER RUN!!!!
Why are people continuing to get these shots after all the stories about these people dying?
They say the infection might not show up for a month or longer. No one is getting shots from them now they were shut down a while back
Bill, a president is only around for 4 years, sometimes 8. The corporations are here forever. Your anger is misdirected. Why not point it at the corporations that pull the strings of our politicians.
if you go to youtube and look at the segment from NZ tv 60min farmer miracle you will know how powerful vitamin C in iv high doses is; the lives could have been saved
Dr. Klenner is one of the pioneers in vitamin C. Dr carthcat another one
medical doctors are kept in dark and believe that vitamin C is a joke cure since they try to discredit it all over the news with studies with doses which are so low that nothing will happen; but as in video where family insisted on the high dose vitamin C we can make a change if we would be informed on that option; doctors in that case did not believe in it as well and were doing first just because they wanted to look good but then the establishment realized what is going and so tried to stop it but as you will see it got too far to stop that case to be seen by the world; people need to be a bit open minded about it and especially doctors; and not to mention of vitamin C in high doses to reverse CVD(cardio vascular disease) that is another story #HEART
it does not let me to post any links but i try to put them in different form
vitamincfoundation org is one to go and do some search
orthomed dot com is another page with some good info dr. Carthcat had treated about 9000 patients with vitamin C
Are you by any chance related to this guy? http://www.timecube.com/
It's horrible that a company like NECC would be so careless to let Meningitis infect it's shots. Aren't there procedures enforced that check to make sure the shots aren't contaminated and are safe to give to people? Carelessness like this should not go unpunished.