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
The investigators observed approximately 100 vials of the steroid drug, which purports to be a sterile injectable drug, that had a greenish-black foreign material and a white filamentous [containing filaments] material inside.Steven Lynn, director of the FDA’s Office of Manufacturing and Product Quality • Speaking on the contamination of vials of an injectable steroid drug, intended for back pain relief, which resulted in the outbreak of fungal meningitis that has left 25 dead and 300+ afflicted across 18 states. The FDA tested 50 of the vials, produced by the New England Compounding Center (NECC), and all of them contained the lethal fungus. source
60 afflicted by fungal meningitis in U.S. outbreak
7 people killed by the outbreak to date
To date, the meningitis has been detected in nine states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Florida, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, and Virginia. The CDC says the outbreak has been linked to steroid shots intended for back pain, and urges proactive steps by those who received the medication: “All patients who may have received these medications need to be tracked down immediately. It is possible that if patients with infection are identified soon and put on appropriate antifungal therapy, lives may be saved,” said the CDC’s Dr. Benjamin Park. source
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