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       More US Meningitis Cases Could Be Linked to Massachusetts Company

   by VOA News

   A medical specialist says more U.S. meningitis infections could be
   discovered now that federal officials have raised concerns about
   additional drugs made by the producer of a tainted medication linked to
   the initial cases.
   The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says it is investigating a
   possible meningitis case in a patient who received a spinal injection,
   as well as two cases in which heart transplant patients contracted
   fungal infections. All three patients received drugs produced by the
   New England Compounding Center, which is under investigation for the
   meningitis outbreak that has killed 15 people.
   Dr. William Schaffner, the chairman of Vanderbilt University Medical
   Center's Department of Preventive Medicine, said the full extent of the
   outbreak caused by the contaminated drugs may not be known for weeks.
   "We are in the middle of a phenomenon. We are not near to the end of
   this investigation yet," Schaffner said.
   Federal health officials say the deaths from fungal meningitis and more
   than 200 cases of illness are believed to be linked to the tainted
   steroid medication produced by the Massachusetts compounding pharmacy.
   With media now reporting that other medications produced by the company
   may have infected at least three people, health officials are advising
   doctors to contact all patients who were injected with drugs made by
   the company.
   Schaffner says the new warnings indicate there could be widespread
   contamination.
   "Our worst fears appear to be realized. We have been concerned from the
   beginning that if one kind of medication was contaminated, is it
   possible that other kinds of medications also were contaminated. Now,
   the FDA does not say that definitively, but they have given us a
   heads-up that that is likely," Schaffner said.
   He says the cases show the FDA needs to extend its regulatory authority
   over compounding pharmacies, which custom-mix specific doses of
   approved medications to meet the needs of individual patients.
   Schaffner says compounding pharmacies should be held to the same
   standards as other pharmaceutical manufacturers.
   Meningitis infects membranes protecting the brain and spinal cord. The
   current outbreak is affecting people in at least 15 states.
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/meningitis-health/1527703.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/meningitis-health/1527703.html