U.S. meningitis outbreak claims three more lives
Baku, October 10 (AZERTAC). Eleven people have now died from a fatal outbreak of meningitis, with 119 now sick with the illness, according to health officials. Experts said they could be seeing new cases as late as December, two months later than previously thought. It is long waiting game for some of the 13,000 people who may have received medication from the suspected source of the illness to get the all-clear.
Some of the patients have had strokes as a result of the infection, but few details were available.
Officials have linked the rare form of meningitis, which is not contagious, to a contaminated steroid injection produced by New England Compounding Center in Massachusetts. At least one contaminated vial was found at the company, in an ongoing investigation by the Food and Drug Administration.
Up to 13,000 people may have received the steroid, commonly used as a spinal injection to treat back pain, from NECC between May 21 and September 25, the CDC said. It is unclear how many of the shots were infected, however. The figure includes not only people who got spinal injections, believed to be most at risk, but those who received injections in other parts of the body, such as knees or shoulders.
The antifungal medicine would still work against the second fungus, he said.
Infected patients have developed a variety of symptoms including fever, new or worsening headache, nausea, and "new neurological deficit [consistent with deep brain stroke]," the CDC said in a news release. Some of these patients' symptoms were very mild in nature. Cerebrospinal fluid from these patients has shown findings consistent with meningitis, the agency said.
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