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6:27AM EDT October 13. 2012 - The nationwide meningitis outbreak has
raised questions about the safety of "compounded" medications, or ones specially
made by pharmacists, rather than large-scale factories.
Yet patients often have no way to know if they're receiving compounded medications from a hospital or clinic, doctors say.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has linked the meningitis outbreak — which has sickened 185 people in 12 states, causing 14 deaths — to injectable steroids that were recalled by the New England Compounding Center, a Massachusetts pharmacy. As many as 14,000 patients were treated with the steroids, largely used to treat lower back pain but also injected for joint pain in the knee.
The outbreak has called attention to gaps in the nation's system for inspecting and regulating drugs, says Michael Carome, a doctor and deputy director of the health research group at Public Citizen, an advocacy group....continue reading here
Yet patients often have no way to know if they're receiving compounded medications from a hospital or clinic, doctors say.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has linked the meningitis outbreak — which has sickened 185 people in 12 states, causing 14 deaths — to injectable steroids that were recalled by the New England Compounding Center, a Massachusetts pharmacy. As many as 14,000 patients were treated with the steroids, largely used to treat lower back pain but also injected for joint pain in the knee.
The outbreak has called attention to gaps in the nation's system for inspecting and regulating drugs, says Michael Carome, a doctor and deputy director of the health research group at Public Citizen, an advocacy group....continue reading here