Second case linked to fungal meningitis outbreak confirmed

From Angela Smith,

MPH — Health Commissioner

Fed­eral, State and local health offi­cials have iden­ti­fied and are inves­ti­gat­ing a sec­ond Mor­row County case linked to the nation­wide fun­gal menin­gi­tis out­break. To date, all infected patients have received injec­tions using recalled med­ica­tion from a Mass­a­chu­setts pharmacy.

Both Mor­row County res­i­dents devel­oped health prob­lems after receiv­ing an epidural steroid injec­tion as a pain man­age­ment treat­ment, using med­ica­tion that was later recalled.

The Mor­row County Health Depart­ment con­tin­ues to fol­low up with patients who may have been exposed to con­t­a­m­i­nated med­ica­tions pro­duced by the New Eng­land Com­pound­ing Cen­ter (NECC) in Fram­ing­ham, Mass., as part of a nation­wide inves­ti­ga­tion into a fun­gal menin­gi­tis outbreak.

“We con­tinue to encour­age any­body who has received an injec­tion with NECC recalled prod­uct and who is expe­ri­enc­ing fever, headache, stiff neck, sen­si­tiv­ity to light, new numb­ness or weak­ness, or slurred speech, to see a imme­di­ately,” said Angela Smith, Health Commissioner.

The out­break is respon­si­ble for 36 deaths and more than 500 cases of fun­gal menin­gi­tis and stroke across 19 states. There have been no deaths related to this out­break in Ohio. This type of fun­gal menin­gi­tis is not contagious.

Accord­ing to the CDC, infected patients may have only one or two symp­toms or may have very mild symp­toms that patients dis­miss. Many infected patients have only expe­ri­enced slight weak­ness, slightly wors­ened back pain, or even just a mild headache. Patients with infec­tions have typ­i­cally devel­oped symp­toms within 1–6 weeks after their injec­tion. The great­est risk of devel­op­ing an infec­tion is in the first 26 days after injec­tion, how­ever, longer time­frames between injec­tion and onset of symp­toms have been reported. The time­frame is still being inves­ti­gated, so patients who were exposed should stay vig­i­lant about mon­i­tor­ing them­selves for symp­toms and see a doc­tor if they develop symp­toms of menin­gi­tis or infec­tion, regard­less of long it has been since they received the injection.

The out­break is not a dan­ger to the gen­eral pub­lic because this type of menin­gi­tis does not spread from per­son to per­son, clar­i­fied Smith. Because the FDA and CDC inves­ti­ga­tions have linked spe­cific and

trace­able med­ica­tion to the dis­ease, the peo­ple who are at risk of infec­tion could be iden­ti­fied and noti­fied to ensure they would rec­og­nize ill­ness and seek treat­ment early when it can be most successful.

NECC com­pounds and dis­trib­utes a large num­ber of injectable prod­ucts. More than 64 loca­tions in Ohio received injectable prod­ucts from the com­pany after May 21. These health­care facil­i­ties have noti­fied Mor­row County res­i­dents who received these prod­ucts, with assis­tance from The Ohio Depart­ment of Health, the Mar­ion County Health Depart­ment, and the Mor­row County Health Department.

For more infor­ma­tion on fun­gal menin­gi­tis, please con­tact a Pub­lic Health Nurse at the Mor­row County Health Depart­ment at (419)947‑1545 or visit us on the web at .MorrowCountyHealth.org. We are “Your Part­ner in Pre­ven­tion and Preparedness.”

Posted by Randa Wagner on Dec 5 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.