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Iowans Receive Letters Regarding Meningitis OutbreakKCCI.com
DES MOINES, Iowa - Some Iowans are getting letters about a national meningitis outbreak.
All patients who received injections from products from the Massachusetts pharmacy are being contacted by their doctors about their possible exposure. Iowa healthcare clinics have been receiving phone calls from patients concerned about the outbreak, and reassuring them they did not receive the recalled products. "We have not had anybody who has became ill nor do we expect that, but we have alerted people to watch out for that just in case," said State Epidemiologist Patricia Quinlisk. Health officials said Thursday that four more people have died in the national outbreak, bringing the number of deaths to 19. The deaths are among the 247 people in 15 states sickened in the outbreak, which has been tied to steroid shots for back pain. A specialty pharmacy in Massachusetts, New England Compounding Center, made the steroid, and federal officials are investigating the business. The CDC also said test results so far show infections with three kinds of fungus. Most were a form of black mold. Healthcare practitioners who used products from the pharmacy now have to contact patients who have received any injected products. Some products from the pharmacy were used in clinics in Minnesota and Illinois, but now in Iowa. States that received injections include: California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Texas and West Virginia. |
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