Spinal Abcesses 2nd Wave Of Fungal Meningitis Outbreak - 39 Dead In Outbreak To Date - NYT
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This public health disaster, in its third month, is far from over. Meningitis seems to have waned, but spinal infections near the injection site are on the rise. They can be dangerous and hard to detect. At least 200 have occurred, and more are expected because nearly 14,000 people had injections from tainted lots of the drug.
On Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged doctors to look harder for these infections — to consider M.R.I. scans even in patients who did not feel worse after the injection, but whose existing back or neck pain simply did not get better. This advice was more aggressive than previous recommendations, which had called for scans only if patients had new or worsening symptoms. The new message could lead to thousands of additional scans, and will almost certainly find new cases. “We know we’re not out of the woods,” said Dr. Tom M. Chiller, the deputy chief of the mycotic diseases branch of the C.D.C. “People could still be harboring or developing infections in their spines now.”
The disease outbreak, first detected in September, was caused by contaminated batches of a steroid, methylprednisolone acetate, made by the New England Compounding Center in Framingham, Mass. The company was shut down and has been under investigation by state and federal authorities, and on Friday night announced that it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The filing seeks to establish a fund to compensate individuals and families affected by the outbreak.
So far, 620 people in 19 states have fallen ill, most with meningitis or spinal infections, or both; 39 have died. Infections inside joints have also occurred. Nearly all the illnesses have been caused by a black mold called Exserohilum. The treatment is a long course of antifungal drugs, which can have dangerous side effects.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/22/health/dangerous-abscesses-add-to-tainted-drugs-threat.html?ref=us&_r=0