Fungal meningitis death toll may rise

Health officials have traced an outbreak of rare fungal meningitis to a Massachusetts specialty pharmacy that distributes a steroid injection commonly used to treat back pain. So far, 26 people have been diagnosed with fungal meningitis in five states and four of them have died.

The pharmacy, which shipped 2,000 vials of the possibly contaminated steroid to one center in Tennessee alone, says it has recalled all of the product and is cooperating with federal officials, according to The Associated Press.

Doctors leading the investigation say they expect to find more cases, and if the pharmacy shipped product to many states it's possible many more people across the country will become ill with the hard-to-treat infection. It cannot be passed from person to person, but a fungal infection of the spinal cord is very tricky to treat.

The 26 cases include 18 people in Tennessee, one in North Carolina, two in Florida, three in Virginia and two in Maryland, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. Two of the deaths were in Tennessee, one in Virginia and one in Maryland, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

"Some are doing well and improving," Tennessee health official Dr. David Reagan told The Associated Press about the state's patients. "Some are very ill - very, very seriously ill and may die."

It was not immediately clear how many vials of the suspect steroid were shipped, and to where. Health officials are asking anyone who had a spinal injection for pain and who has symptoms such as a headache, stiff neck, dizziness or trouble walking to see a doctor right away. The infection may take up to three weeks to incubate.

"We have notified medical professionals the prime suspect for this outbreak is methylprednisolone," Tennessee Department of Health Commissioner Dr. John Dreyzehner told reporters in a telephone briefing. Tennessee officials were the first to notice the unusual cases of meningitis, and discovered that the patients involved had all been treated at three specialty clinics. All had recieved direct injections of the steroid into their spines for pain.

Study says vital to treat fungal meningitis early U.S. doctors in Baltimore said early diagnosis and treatment of patients at risk of fungal meningitis is vital, based on the case of an otherwise healthy woman who declined rapidly after receiving steroid injections for neck pain.

Writing in the Annals of Internal Medicine, released online on Wednesday, researchers at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine describe the deterioration the unnamed, 51-year-old who sought care in an emergency room for a severe headache a week after receiving an injection with tainted medication on August 31.

The widening outbreak has killed 19 people and infected 245, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).