Steroid Meningitis

State inspectors find dirty condtions at meningitis pharmacy

A Massachusetts Department of Public Health inspection report found dirty conditions likely to cause contamination at a pharmacy linked to a deadly meningitis outbreak, ABC News reports.

Inspectors found dirty floors and a leaky boiler at the New England Compounding Center. Although they have yet to determine how exactly the fungal contaminant got into vials of a steroid medication called methylprednisolone acetate, inspectors noted in their report that the conditions created an “environment susceptible to contaminant growth.”

Inspectors also reported improper use ...

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Past problems found at meningitis-linked pharmacy

An outside firm that the state of Massachusetts hired to do an assessment found problems at a pharmacy linked to a deadly meningitis outbreak, CBS reports.

According to Massachusetts state documents from 2006, investigators found inadequate contamination control and no written standard operating procedures for using equipment, among other problems, at the New England Compounding Center. The NECC corrected the problems that year, and a state inspection in 2011 found no ...

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Experts say meningitis outbreak was preventable

A story in USA Today concerns a physician who claims that a current deadly outbreak of fungal meningitis is nearly identical to one that occurred a decade ago. If the federal government had enacted some safety measures then, the current outbreak might have been avoided, according to John Perfect, chief of infectious disease at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C.

According to the article, Perfect treated five patients sickened in North Carolina a decade ago, one of whom died.

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Fungal infection confirmed for steroid medication

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has confirmed that steroid medication linked to a deadly meningitis outbreak is contaminated with a fungus.

A Reuters report says the FDA made that confirmation on one of three lots of the medication, and is still testing the other two. The agency is also testing other injectable medications produced by the New England Compounding Center, the Massachusetts-based specialty pharmacy that produced the infected steroid.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control says the ...

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Lawsuits filed against New England Compounding Center for tainted steroid

A story on Patch.com says that a number of lawsuits have been filed against the Massachusetts pharmacy linked to a deadly meningitis outbreak.

The New England Compounding Center is the specialty pharmacy that produced a shipment of steroid commonly injected to relieve back pain, which was found to be tainted with a fungus.

Figures from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Oct. 18 put the number of infected patients at 247 in 15 states, including 19 deaths. But CDC ...

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Workers linked to meningitis outbreak had concerns about quality

Former workers at a company with ties to the pharmacy responsible for a deadly meningitis outbreak said they had safety concerns.

An article in the New York Times includes interviews with former employees from Ameridose, a drug manufacturing company that has many of the same owners as the New England Compounding Center – the source of the contaminated steroid medication that has so far killed 15 people.

“Six former employees, five from Ameridose and one from New England Compounding, described a corporate ...

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