The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reached a tally Monday of more than 100 people infected with fungal meningitis, though Florida has remained relatively unaffected.
The disease, which has been linked to tainted steroids, has infected four Floridians and killed eight others across the country.
“You don’t want to get any infection in the skull,” said Wolfgang Streit, a UF neuroscience professor. “It could lead to compression of vital centers in the brain that could cause a person to die.”
Methylprednisolone acetate, the type of steroid used in the infected samples, is used to treat back and neck pain.
The New England Compounding Center, which made the steroids in question, recently issued a voluntary recall of the drug.
Paul Myers, administrator of the Alachua County Health Department, said there have been no cases of the disease in Alachua County and said he isn’t aware of any tainted steroids in the county.
He said all the doctors who have used the steroid in the past few months have been told to get in contact with any patients who were injected with the drug.
He said it’s important to make sure these types of drugs are created in a sterile environment, especially because they’re injected into the spine.
“This is clearly a case of carelessness,” Streit said. “Somebody wasn’t washing their hands.”
Contact Shelby Webb at swebb@alligator.org.
