Meningitis Outbreak May Affect Over 23 USA States

The Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention (CDC) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced they are advising medical professionals not to use any products manufactured by the New England Compounding Center in Framingham, Mass., due to an outbreak of fungal meningitis tied to some medications made by the company.

Three lots of the company's preservative-free methylprednisolone acetate that go back to July 2012 have been recalled and are believed to be the cause of the recent outbreak. Thirty-five cases of fungal meningitis in six states have been identified, with five deaths. The majority of the cases, 25 in total, have been discovered in Tennessee.

Dr. Benjamin Park, medical epidemiologist with the CDC, said that 23 states may have received shipments of the tainted product. These states include: California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Texas and West Virginia. A total of 75 facilities may have received product from one of these three recalled lots.

However, because the New England Compounding Center is licensed in all 50 states of USA, there is a possibility contaminated products may be in other areas.