Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Meningitis outbreak: California patient files suit


Written by
Walter F. Roche Jr.
The Tennessean

Although California has officially reported no cases of fungal meningitis in a nationwide outbreak, an apparent California victim has filed suit against the Massachusetts firm blamed for the illnesses.
Her case has been transferred to a federal court in Boston, where dozens of other cases have been merged before a federal judge.
The transfer of the California case came on the same day the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported two more deaths from the outbreak, both in Michigan. A total of 63 deaths have been reported nationwide, 15 of them among patients treated in Tennessee.
The number of victims treated in Tennessee has remained at 153 since the last report a month ago.
According to the CDC, a total of 749 patients have been infected from the fungus-tainted spinal steroid shipped by the New England Compounding Center to health facilities across the country. That is the same number as a month ago.
Michigan, which has now reported 19 deaths, has had the most cases at 264, while Indiana has reported 91 cases with 11 deaths.
Those CDC totals, however, do not include any cases from California, and CDC officials said that none has been reported to them by the California Public Health Department.
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