This is a significant shift in the presentation of this fungal infection, and quite concerning. An epidural abscess is very serious. It’s not something we expected.Dr. Lakshmi K. Halasyamani, chief medical director at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital • Speaking of a worrisome development regarding the U.S. meningitis outbreak, which has now afflicted more than 400 people across the country. The infections were the result of vials of an injectible steroid, intended for back pain relief, being tainted with a meningitis-causing fungus. Now, some people just recovering from the initial health horror have been stricken with an “epidural abscess” — about a third of the 53 meningitis patients at Dr. Halasyamani’s hospital. The abscess forms where the tainted injection was administered, in this case near the spine, underneath the skin, and untreated can cause another bout of the lethal disease. Medical experts were particularly surprised to find abscesses that had formed even while patients were actively undergoing treatments to combat the fungus. source
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