More Drugs Implicated in Fungal Meningitis Outbreak
More Drugs Implicated in Fungal Meningitis Outbreak - Vitals
Two more drugs have been implicated in the ongoing outbreak of fungal meningitis linked to contaminated pain injections, federal health officials said Monday.
Both come from the same pharmacy, New England Compounding Center, that distributed the steroids suspected of sickening at least 214 people and killing 15 of them, the Food and Drug Administration said in a statement.
One is a steroid called triamcinolone acetonide and another is a product used during heart surgery. While the FDA hasn’t confirmed that the two products are to blame, it’s issued a warning.
“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 agency said in a statement.
“Triamcinolone acetonide is a type of steroid injectable product made by NECC. The cases of meningitis identified to date have been associated with methylprednisolone acetate, another similar steroid injectable product.”