Thursday, November 15, 2012
All 13 got fungal infections, mostly meningitis, from products made by NECC at clinics in Edina, Fridley, Shakopee and Maple Grove. The latest has osteomyelitis.
State health officials warned Thursday about a "second wave" of fungal infections in Minnesota from contaminated steroid medication made at the New England Compounding Center (NECC), a pharmacy in Framingham, MA. The outbreak has hit 13 people in Minnesota, the latest a woman in her 20s who the Minnesota Department of Health said Thursday contracted a bone infection. Eleven of the Minnesota victims had a different kind of infection: fungal meningitis. Nationwide, the outbreak has killed 32 people (none in Minnesota) and infected nearly 500, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Six clinics in Minnesota used the medication: Here is the announcement from the MDH: Health officials announce 13th case of fungal infection …
Saturday, October 27, 2012
The New England Compounding Center (NECC) sent tainted steroids to clinics in Fridley, Edina, Maple Grove and Shakopee, sickening 9 Minnesotans in national outbreak.
"Greenish black foreign matter" and other signs of contamination at the Massachusetts pharmacy blamed in a fungal meningitis outbreak are documented in a report the U.S. Federal Drug Administration released Friday. Read the FDA's Form 483 on the New England Compounding Center (NECC) in Framingham, MA above. Nine people in Minnesota have contracted fungal meningitis after receiving tainted steroid shots produced at NECC. Six Minnesota clinics administered the steroids: Medical Advanced Pain Specialists (MAPS) in Edina, Fridley, Shakopee and Maple Grove; and Minnesota Surgery Center (MSC) in Edina and Maple Grove. NECC also shipped other medicines that federal agencies have so far not implicated in the outbreak to more than 100 other clinics…
Thursday, October 25, 2012
The FDA said the pharmacy that started the outbreak shipped products to the hospital in Fridley—but not steroids known to cause the infection.
The pharmacy at the center of a national fungal meningitis outbreak shipped products to Unity Hospital in Fridley, according to the U.S. Federal Drug Administration (FDA). The products were not the injectible steroids that the FDA blames for causing the infections that has killed 24 people in 18 states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The FDA said it was alerting all customers of the New England Compounding Center (NECC) of Framingham, MA out of "an abundance of caution." It's the second Fridley facility identified as having received NECC products. Medical Advanced Pain Specialists (MAPS), next door to Unity Hospital, is one of six clinics in Minnesota that administered what turned out to be tainted NECC …
45.10793
-93.25689
Unity Hospital
550 Osborne Rd NE, Minneapolis, MN
/articles/unity-hospital-was-customer-of-pharmacy-tied-to-fungal-meningitis
1708223
/locations/8067414
One patient is in his 60s, the other in his 50s. The infection is tied to steroids used at clinics in Fridley, Edina, Shakopee and Maple Grove.
A Minnesota man in his 60s and another in his 50s have come down with the state's eighth and ninth cases of fungal meningitis, the Minnesota Department of Health announced Thursday afternoon. Women ranging in age from their 20s to their 70s have accounted for six of Minnesota's nine cases. Federal agencies have linked the rare infection to steroids produced at a now-closed compounding pharmacy in Massachusetts and used at six clinics in Minnesota: The outbreak is now in 18 states and has killed 24 people. Minnesota is one of 11 states where people have come down with the infection but no one has died. Fungal meningitis is different from the more common bacterial and viral forms of meningitis and is not spread person-to-person. More:
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Steroids for back pain may not be the only contaminated medications. The MN Dept. of Health said many clinics were customers of NECC, the implicated pharmacy in MA.
Update (3:30 p.m. Tuesday: The Minnesota Department of Health is contacting 129 clinics that received medications from the Massachusetts pharmacy blamed in the 15-state outbreak of fungal meningitis that has taken 15 lives in other states. The agency's action comes a day after the U.S. Federal Drug Administration (FDA) announced an investigation of other products of the New England Compounding Center, where steroids blamed in the outbreak so far were made. The state Health Department said in a news release Tuesday afternoon that the number of patients in Minnesota who got the potentially tainted drug treatments is unknown. Original post (8 a.m. Tuesday): Many more Minnesota clinics and patients may soon find themselves involved in the 15-…
Monday, October 15, 2012
The MN Department of Health hasn't said where the five infected patients live, but the clinics where more than 800 people in MN got tainted steroid shots are in Fridley, Edina, Maple Grove and Shakopee.
Minnesota has its fifth case of fungal meningitis, the Minnesota Department of Health announced Monday morning. The new case is a woman in her 20s, said Doug Schutz, MDH spokesperson. That makes her the youngest person to get the infection in the state so far. On Oct. 13, the agency said a woman in her 70s was the latest to come down with fungal meningitis, which is not spread person-to-person. Minnesota's first three patients to get the infection were all women in their 40s, the MDH said, and two were well enough to leave the hospital last week. Schutz said the MDH does not attach any special significance to the ages of those infected so far. They have in common that they sought treatment for back pain, which can strike people of any age…
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Clinics in Edina, Fridley, Maple Grove and Shakopee quietly promote 'factual,' 'consistent' information on outbreak tied to steroid shots.
The number of Minnesotans infected with fungal meningitis is holding steady at three cases, but the number of people killed in a 10-state outbreak has hit 11. That's according to the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), where scientists have linked the rare infection to injectible steroids produced in Massachusetts and provided to patients at clinics in Edina, Fridley, Maple Grove and Shakopee. The total number of people infected in the United States stands at 119. A spokesperson for Medical Advanced Pain Specialists (MAPS), one of two Minnesota medical groups that provided the tainted steroid, said MAPS staff is trying to help government agencies. Anne Trujillo, MAPS director of …
Monday, October 8, 2012
Officials still trying to reach about 100 who got steroid shots at clinics in Edina, Maple Grove, Shakopee and Fridley.
Minnesota officials on Monday were still trying to reach about 100 people who received steroid shots tied to a multi-state outbreak of fungal meningitis that has killed 8 people and infected 105 others in nine states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Minnesota Department of Health staff worked through the weekend to call by phone 831 people who got steroid treatment at six clinics located in Edina, Maple Grove, Fridley and Shakopee. Three Minnesotans Infected So far, three Minnesota women have been hospitalized with the infection but are doing well, according to MDH spokesperson Buddy Ferguson. The MDH said all three are in their 40s but hasn't said more about them or where they got the infection. A 39-…
Saturday, October 6, 2012
The rare infection is not contagious. But it has sickened 91 people and killed seven in nine states.
An outbreak of fungal meningitis has killed seven people, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, and it has made 91 sick in nine states—including three in Minnesota. All three are women in their 40s, according to MPR. The infection isn't contagious. It is linked to a steroid treatment product made by the New England Compounding Center in Framingham, MA, according to the the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH). New England Compounding Center has issued a nationwide recall of all its products. Two providers gave patients the steroid treatment at six sites in Fridley, Edina, Maple Grove and Shakopee, according to the MDH: The Minnesota Department of Health has not said exactly how or where the two Minnesotans got the infection. …
Tyler Spencer
4:17 pm on Monday, October 8, 2012
I too, am looking for answers. I was given a steroid shot in my buttocks for cervical and sciatic pain September 26 in Hawaii. I have been and still am sick daily. No rash or fever~but extreme fatigue, headache, nausea,dizziness,sensitivity to light and occaisionally fast heartrate. I have only seen one news source list Hawaii as on of the 23 state to recieve this drug. Why the silence? Are they … more ›