The tainted steroid injections that caused a deadly meningitis
outbreak last year seem to have triggered a broad range of symptoms in
patients, according to a new study by the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention.
Since it began in September 2012, the outbreak of fungal meningitis has sickened 750 people in 20 states, resulting in 64 deaths, based on the latest CDC figures from last month.
The illnesses have all been traced to fungus-contaminated steroid medications that were given in injections to treat back and joint pain. A single company, the Massachusetts-based New England Compounding Center, distributed the drugs.
In the Oct. 24 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, CDC researchers give a fuller account of the illnesses in six U.S. states that were hardest hit by the outbreak.
"This is the first detailed look at the early clinical course of patients involved in this outbreak," said study author Dr. John Jernigan, of the CDC's division of healthcare quality promotion.
Of 328 people who fell ill after having steroid injections near the spine, 81 percent had an infection affecting the central nervous system (CNS) -- the brain or spinal cord. That usually meant meningitis, which is an inflammation of the membranes around the spinal cord and brain.
Some people had other types of infections of the central nervous system, either in combination with meningitis or not. Thirty-five people suffered a stroke -- believed to be caused by the meningitis, Jernigan said -- and strokes were to blame for most of the 26 deaths in these states.
The rest of the patients (19 percent) had infections that stayed localized to the injection site and did not get into the central nervous system -- such as infections of the discs between the vertebrae.
Overall, the severity of patients' symptoms ranged from "very mild" to "life-threatening," the CDC team reported.
According to Jernigan, it's not clear why some people's infections did not invade the central nervous system. But nearly all of those non-CNS infections were seen in one state, Michigan. "We don't have an explanation for that," Jernigan said.
Whatever the details of the infections, the bottom line remains the same, according to Dr. Michael Carome of the Washington, D.C.-based watchdog group Public Citizen.
"This was a public health disaster," said Carome, who heads Public Citizen's health research group. "We think the great tragedy is, this was wholly preventable."
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Since it began in September 2012, the outbreak of fungal meningitis has sickened 750 people in 20 states, resulting in 64 deaths, based on the latest CDC figures from last month.
The illnesses have all been traced to fungus-contaminated steroid medications that were given in injections to treat back and joint pain. A single company, the Massachusetts-based New England Compounding Center, distributed the drugs.
In the Oct. 24 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, CDC researchers give a fuller account of the illnesses in six U.S. states that were hardest hit by the outbreak.
"This is the first detailed look at the early clinical course of patients involved in this outbreak," said study author Dr. John Jernigan, of the CDC's division of healthcare quality promotion.
Of 328 people who fell ill after having steroid injections near the spine, 81 percent had an infection affecting the central nervous system (CNS) -- the brain or spinal cord. That usually meant meningitis, which is an inflammation of the membranes around the spinal cord and brain.
Some people had other types of infections of the central nervous system, either in combination with meningitis or not. Thirty-five people suffered a stroke -- believed to be caused by the meningitis, Jernigan said -- and strokes were to blame for most of the 26 deaths in these states.
The rest of the patients (19 percent) had infections that stayed localized to the injection site and did not get into the central nervous system -- such as infections of the discs between the vertebrae.
Overall, the severity of patients' symptoms ranged from "very mild" to "life-threatening," the CDC team reported.
According to Jernigan, it's not clear why some people's infections did not invade the central nervous system. But nearly all of those non-CNS infections were seen in one state, Michigan. "We don't have an explanation for that," Jernigan said.
Whatever the details of the infections, the bottom line remains the same, according to Dr. Michael Carome of the Washington, D.C.-based watchdog group Public Citizen.
"This was a public health disaster," said Carome, who heads Public Citizen's health research group. "We think the great tragedy is, this was wholly preventable."
continue to read here