Notes from the field: Department of Defense response to a multistate outbreak of fungal meningitis--United States, October 2012.

Abstract

On October 1, 2012, the Department of Defense (DoD) learned of a multistate outbreak of fungal meningitis in persons who received injections of methylprednisolone acetate (MPA) from a single compounding pharmacy. Ten patients with fungal meningitis after epidural steroid injection (ESI) were initially identified in Tennessee and North Carolina. No military treatment facilities had received MPA from this pharmacy. However, clinics receiving implicated MPA lots were located throughout the United States, and active duty military service members and other DoD health-care beneficiaries could have been exposed through health-care services purchased outside of the DoD health-care system. Therefore, a timely method was needed to determine whether exposure to implicated MPA had occurred among DoD personnel who used purchased care.

• Authors: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
• Journal: MMWR. Morbidity and mortality weekly report (MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep) Vol. 62 Issue 38 Pg. 800-1 (Sep 27 2013) ISSN: 1545-861X [Electronic] United States
• PMID: 24067586 (Publication Type: Journal Article)

Chemical References

• Methylprednisolone Acetate
• Methylprednisolone

Topics

• Disease Outbreaks
• Drug Contamination
• Female
• Humans
• Injections, Epidural (adverse effects)
• Male
• Meningitis, Fungal (epidemiology)
• Methylprednisolone (administration & dosage, adverse effects, analogs & derivatives)
• Methylprednisolone Acetate
• Military Medicine (organization & administration)
• North Carolina (epidemiology)
• Population Surveillance (methods)
• Tennessee (epidemiology)
• United States (epidemiology)
• United States Department of Defense (organization & administration)