New call for probe of meningitis addictive drugs

A leading US lawmaker has called for an investigation of whether the company at the centre of the deadly meningitis outbreak violated federal laws covering potentially addictive drugs, a day after the health scare widened to new medications.

The US meningitis outbreak continues to grow and has so far killed 15 people and infected 231, according to a tally from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

“We are nowhere near the end of this problem. And we will see more patients reporting in ill and we’ll have to treat many more going forward,” Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious diseases expert at the Vanderbilt University Medical Centrein Nashville, said.

The Food and Drug Administration’s recently widened its investigation of the cause of the fungal meningitis outbreak to other drugs made by a Massachusetts pharmacy, the New England Compounding Centre, a development which Schaffner called “ominous”.

“We’ll have to notify many more patients across the country that they may have been exposed to a fungal infection,” said Schaffner, who has consulted with the worst affected state of Tennessee.

Nearly 14,000 people nationwide are at risk of infection because they received injections from the suspect steroid medications shipped to 76 facilities in 23 states. Health authorities have not yet said how many more people may be affected by the additional drugs.

Another 19 people were reported stricken with fungal meningitis recently, bringing the total nationwide to 231. That total does not include two people who have a fungal infection from joint injections, so the total of infections reached 233.

In Washington, Massachusetts Democratic congressman Edward Markey called on the Justice Department to investigate whether the company violated federal laws designed to stem illegal activity in controlled drugs.

Reuters