New Problems Possible With Other Meds From Mass. Pharmacy In Meningitis Outbreak
BOSTON (CBS) – There may be issues with more medications from a Framingham pharmacy at the center of a deadly national meningitis outbreak.
New England Compounding Center recalled about 17,000 vials of an injectable steroid for back pain after investigators found three lots were contaminated by a fungus.
WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Doug Cope reports
Podcast
The contamination led to a fungal meningitis outbreak that has sickened more than 200 people in 14 states, killing 15.
NECC eventually recalled all of its products on October 6.
But the FDA announced Monday that there may be more problems associated with other NECC products.
On its website, the FDA stated that a "patient with possible meningitis potentially associated with epidural injection of an additional NECC product, triamcinolone acetonide, has been identified through active surveillance and reported to FDA."
The cases of fungal meningitis reported before Monday have been associated with just one injectable steroid - methylprednisolone acetate.
The FDA also said two transplant patients who had been given a medication that paralyzes the heart during open heart surgery have come down with "Aspergillus fumigatus infection."
That medication also came from NECC.
However, "FDA has not confirmed that these three infections were, in fact, caused by an NECC product," the agency said in the statement.
