An investigation is currently underway into the cause and mode of transmission of a national outbreak of fungal meningitis.
This outbreak has been linked to injections of a steroid for pain management, and cases have been identified in several U.S. states. Contamination of the steroid, which was prepared by a compounding company in Massachusetts that recently voluntarily suspended its operations, is suspected, although other factors and potential violations of aseptic technique have not been ruled out.
Several newspaper articles have been published discussing this outbreak, including a number of news reports that aired on TV during the national evening news this past week on CBS, NBC and ABC.
A question is raised: Was the healthcare facilities’ attraction to this compounding pharmacy (the New England Compounding Center’s (NECC) Framingham, Massachusetts facility) primarily to save money and to purchase medications and steroids that could be of a lower quality and reliability, but that cost the healthcare facilities less money than if the comparable, though more regulated and safe, medication were purchased by these facilities from an FDA-regulated pharmaceutical company with greater quality-associated expenses that the company is forced to pass on to healthcare facilities (at the expense of being less competitive) by way of higher prices for its medications? Is this a trend in the U.S.? Is this meningitis outbreak akin to consumers purchasing cheaper drugs from outside of the U.S. (e.g., from Canada)?
Several interesting articles discussing this outbreak can be read by visiting this website’s “Infection Control, In the News” link. More details to follow …
Dr. Muscarella will be providing periodic updates about this outbreak, as with any outbreak or general topic of interest, via my Twitter account: @MuskiePhD
By Lawrence F Muscarella PhD on 10/15/2012