Recent Spinal Shots May Pose Most Risk of Meningitis Infection

Federal health officials say the more recently a patient received a spinal injection of the contaminated steroid implicated in a nationwide outbreak of fungal meningitis, the higher his or her risk of developing the disease. Those injected with the contaminated drug within the last six weeks — since Sept. 11, 2012 — may be at the greatest risk, and extra monitoring should be considered for them even if they have no symptoms, according to an advisory posted online by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The drug was recalled on Sept. 26. More recent injections may carry higher risk because the drug was older and had grown increasingly contaminated as it sat on the shelf with the fungus multiplying inside the vials. However, the risk of developing the disease remains relatively small, officials report. So far, 317 people in 17 states have been infected, and 24 have died. The disease has been traced to three lots of methylprednisolone produced by the New England Compounding Center in Framingham, Mass. About 14,000 people were injected with it. For more information, click here to read the full article.