About 13,000 were given steroid shots for lower back pain all across the United States within the past few months, but it wasn’t until a week ago that the doctors started seeing an overwhelming amount of meningitis cases. The men and women who were coming to the doctors with fungal meningitis all had one thing in common; they had all had the same shot for lower back pain. It didn’t take long before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that the shots contained two fungi that could start a flare up of dangerous meningitis. Meningitis is a dangerous disease that causes a swelling in the spinal cord and the lining of the brain. If it isn’t treated quickly, it can lead to death. Unfortunately, the symptoms of meningitis are subtle and don’t typically show up until one to four weeks after the disease has already been live. Symptoms include nausea, headaches, slurred speech, vomiting, and other flu-like symptoms.

The CDC started releasing figures about the meningitis outbreak five days ago, when there were only about a dozen cases scattered across the U.S. Now, over a dozen people have died and 170 are infected with the dangerous illness. The newest victims died in Florida and Indiana, but others have already passed away in Tennessee, Maryland, Virginia, and Michigan. Other states with ill victims are Idaho, North Carolina, New Jersey, Ohio, and Minnesota. The meningitis can be traced back to steroids that were manufactured and distributed by the New England Compounding Center in Framingham, Massachusetts. The steroid was recalled on September 26^th when it was discovered that it was defective, but this was not before 13,000 had received an injection.

Doctors are not certain how many potential victims will come down with the illness within the next few weeks, and are trying to contact any patients who received the shot so that they can be placed under careful watch and treated as soon as possible if they are discovered to be carriers of the illness. The government has determined that about 75 facilities in 23 states received and used shipments of the dangerous steroid. The fungus cannot be transmitted from person to person, so it will not be a contagious epidemic. All people who received the injection should be put on anti-fungal therapy to try and rid the body of the fungus before it kick starts the illness. The people who are affected may have received their injection as early as May 21^st, 2012. Any people who received a shot before that date do not run the risk of being injected with a contaminated steroid.

If you or someone that you love has come down with a terrible case of this dangerous and potentially deadly meningitis, then you need to head to the doctor right away. You can also contact a personal injury attorney today if you need more information about the meningitis outbreak or want to litigate. Many plaintiffs will soon rise up against the New England Compounding Center and seek damages for wrongful death or medical malpractice mistakes. If you can prove that you were diagnosed with meningitis due to the injection, then you should jump on board. You will need to have doctor’s records proving that you received the steroid injection from the New England Compounding Center and were later diagnosed with this horrific illness. So far, 90 percent of all people who have received the shots have been notified that they may obtain this illness. The FDA is currently working with Congress to set up new rules which will govern compounding pharmacies so that another epidemic like this doesn’t happen in the future.