Outbreak, Meningitis | featured news

Disease detectives curbed spread of meningitis

Meningitis Outbreak

It was just an e-mail about a single case of illness, but a gut instinct developed through years of disease detective work made Dr. Marion Kainer sense a bigger danger. Kainer, the director of health care-associated infections for the Tennessee Department of Health, started investigating the day she got that e-mail and hasn't stopped since. She camped out in her office for three weeks, leading a team of state workers as they traced the source of what would become a national outbreak of fungal meningitis.

 

Meningitis victims face long, uncertain recovery

Vilinda York lies in her Florida hospital bed, facing a dry-erase board that lists in green marker her name, her four doctors and a smiley face. Also on the board is this: "Anticipated date of discharge: NOT YET DETERMINED."

 

Meningitis toll rises; pharmacy owners sued

Executives at the Boston-area pharmacy whose steroid shots have been linked to a deadly U.S. meningitis outbreak have been sued in a bid to freeze their personal assets, while the death toll in the scandal rose to 21, with 268 cases of infection reported.

 

Drug Makers Stalled in a Cycle of Quality Lapses and Shortages

Drugmakers

...These recent quality lapses at big drug companies show that contamination and shoddy practices extend well beyond the loosely regulated compounding pharmacies that have attracted attention because of their link to an outbreak of meningitis... [S]everal industry observers and former plant employees said that the recent quality issues were troubling and that manufacturers had been reluctant to fix problems because stopping production was simply too costly in a business where profits were driven by volume.

 

Meningitis outbreak rises to 205 cases: CDC

Seven more people have been diagnosed with fungal meningitis linked to possibly tainted vials of a steroid medication, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Sunday, bringing the total number of cases to 205 in 14 states.

 

2 More Dead in Meningitis Outbreak, C.D.C. Says

Two more people have died from fungal meningitis linked to steroid injections, bringing the total to 14 deaths since the outbreak began last month, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control said on Thursday.

 

13,000 may be at risk for fungal meningitis

Meningitis

The number of people infected with a rare type of meningitis tied to contaminated steroid injections has climbed to 105, federal health officials said Monday.

 

Epidural steroid shots debated amid meningitis scare

As authorities continue to focus on a potentially contaminated steroid as the source of a widening outbreak of fungal meningitis, some patient-safety advocates are calling for greater restrictions on the type of injection involved.

 

Rare US meningitis outbreak grows; 4 dead, 22 sick

Meningitis Outbreak

An outbreak of a rare form of meningitis is likely to grow after sickening 26 people in five states, including four who died, health officials warned... All received steroid injections used mostly for back pain that have been traced back to a specialty pharmacy in Massachusetts. The pharmacy issued a recall last week and has shut down operations.

 

Subscribe to this RSS topic: Syndicate content