At Allegheny Pain Clinic in Altoona, PA, a patient was given an injection of a steroid, methylprednisolone acetate, for back pain. They later developed symptoms of fungal meningitis, which is being linked to fungus in vials distributed from New England Compounding Center in Massachusetts. This is the first case in Pennsylvania but there are hundreds of cases is many states in the U.S. About 600 patients were potentially exposed to the fungus, this patient was found because of a follow-up performed by the clinic.
The NECC has recalled all of its production and shut down production while under investigation by various companies like state health departments, the Centers for Disease Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration. Specialty pharmacies are treated differently than regular pharmacies, they are not watched as carefully and things can get over-looked. The steroids made by the NECC that seem to be contaminated were made with no preservatives, meaning that they did not contain anything to kill the bacteria that may have been in the vials.
Read the full story here. http://www.altoonamirror.com/page/content.detail/id/565130/Altoona-meningitis-case-first-in-state.html?nav=742