Posted in News on September 11, 2013

Patients across the nation have a reasonable expectation that the drugs, injections and vaccinations they may receive for their medical condition are safe for consumer use, and that they have gone undergone rigorous governmental scrutiny and approval. However, a nationwide incident that occurred last October due to a contaminated steroid has consumers wondering how many patients were adversely affected by the contaminated and defective drug, which recently caused an outbreak of fungal meningitis in multiple states across the U.S.

Montana residents may be familiar with last October’s news of the now-defunct New England Compounding Center, a drug compounding pharmacy facility, which came under scrutiny after it shipped contaminated steroid injections nationwide. The Centers for Disease Control has been monitoring the fungal meningitis outbreak stemming from the compound facility’s contaminated steroid injections since last year. The contaminated steroid injections resulted in numerous deaths and serious injuries to patients in multiple states.

In fact, two new victims recently filed lawsuits. Both patients had received spinal injections with the contaminated steroids sometime last year and developed fungal meningitis. One patient filed a lawsuit against the neurosurgical center, hospital, clinic, owners of the compounding center that shipped the tainted steroids, and the company that was hired to test the drug samples for sterility. That suit alleges that the named defendants were negligent and in violation of product liability laws. The other patient has filed a lawsuit against the owners of the compounding facility, its sister company and accuses them of negligence and engaging in deceptive business practices.

Nearly a year after the compounding center’s defective steroids were discovered, cases of fungal meningitis across the nation are still surfacing. The CDC continues to monitor and update the case count.

Source: The Tennessean, “More TN meningitis lawsuits filed,” Walter F. Roche Jr., Sept. 5, 2013