Cases of Meningitis in NH Grows to 11

A new New Hampshire case of fungal meningitis brings the number of confirmed cases in New Hampshire to 11, state health officials announced today.

These cases are connected to a nationwide outbreak of the non-contagious form of meningitis linked to tainted medication that investigators say was made at the New England Compounding Center in Framingham, Mass.

The outbreak of fungal meningitis was announced at the beginning of October, and since then more than 300 people have been sickened and another 23 have died in 17 states.

An article on Framingham Patch, says the FDA has filed a form 483 as part of its investigation. The FDA cited a problem as the Framingham company's “ability to maintain its clean room, which is the enclosed space that is designed and maintained to have a controlled environment with low levels of airborne particles and surface contamination.”

According to an article on Boston.com this afternoon, new information released from the Food and Drug administration says more than 80 vials of medicine at NECC had a visible "greenish black foreign matter" in them and another 17 had white stuff floating in them.

"The agency also found that New England Compounding did not do proper sterility testing on the drug, for example sending out just one vial from the entire lot for testing – a vial that passed the test," according to the article. "But when the FDA tested 50 vials, it found contamination in all of them. Experts say a minimum of 20 should be tested under national guidelines."

New Hampshire's first connection to this case came and a few days later, were alerted to the fact that they may have been injected with a tainted steroid meant to help manage back and joint pain. Since then, more than 30 New Hampshire medical facilities who have used any products from NECC have been advised to pull the medications from use.

DHHS will be issuing updates on any NH cases associated with the national outbreak through a table posted to its website.  The table will be updated with information about case counts as it becomes available.

For any other questions about the investigation, please call the DHHS Public Information Office at 271-9388 or 271-9391.  Thank you.

Find all of Merrimack Patch's coverage of this meningitis outbreak here.