A story in the Boston Globe says congressional representatives investigating a deadly fungal meningitis outbreak have called FDA Commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg to testify at a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing.
Hamburg is also scheduled to testify at a U.S. Senate hearing on the issue.
A co-founder of the New England Compounding Center, the Massachusetts-based specialty pharmacy behind the outbreak, has been invited to testify as well.
The ...
continue reading...A second illness is afflicting people who already contracted meningitis from tainted steroid medication, the New York Times reports.
A significant number of the patients being treated for meningitis – a potentially deadly inflammation of the tissue surrounding the spinal cord and brain — have also developed a condition called epidural abscess, the story says.
Although abscesses are localized infections that are different from meningitis, untreated abscesses can cause meningitis in some ...
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ABC News reports that nine more people have been infected in a nationwide fungal meningitis outbreak.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has raised the number of reported cases related to tainted steroid medication to 386 in 19 states. That tally includes 377 cases of fungal meningitis, and nine joint infections. The CDC says 28 of those who have been infected have died.
The tainted medication ...
continue reading...A Massachusetts-based drug manufacturer called Ameridose, which is linked to the pharmacy behind a deadly fungal meningitis outbreak, has recalled all of its products over safety concerns.
Although there was no specific evidence that any of the medications Ameridose produces were contaminated, federal and state regulators raised concerns about the adequacy of the testing processes that are supposed to ensure those medications are sterile, the New York Times reports.
Ameridose is the sister company of the New England ...
continue reading...Massachusetts has shut down another pharmacy of the type linked to a deadly meningitis outbreak, the New York Times reports.
The Bureau of Health Care Safety and Quality at the Massachusetts Public Health Department ordered the closing of a pharmacy called Infusion Resource, after a surprise inspection cast doubt on the sterility of its products.
Like the New England Compounding Center, the pharmacy linked to the meningitis outbreak, Infusion Resource is a ...
continue reading...The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says the Massachusetts pharmacy linked to a deadly meningitis outbreak was aware it had mold and bacteria contamination – including in the “clean rooms” where supposedly sterile drugs are made. Yet the New England Compounding Center repeatedly failed to take action, according to an article in the Washington Post.
The current outbreak of meningitis – an inflammation of the tissue lining the brain and the spinal cord – was caused by ...
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