Earlier this month, TakePart reported on a lethal meningitis outbreak stemming from pain medication mixed at one pharmacy in New England. With the death toll increasing and the rate of ill patients rapidly rising, this fungal meningitis resurgence has become one of the country’s worst drug-related health crises in recent years. Worse still, are new reports that staffers at the pharmacy knew of the impending danger and did nothing to stop it.
So far, 338 people have been fallen ill from fungal meningitis, while 25 more have died from it, the Associated Press reports. In all cases, patients received an injection of tainted pain medication made in the New England Compounding Center (NECC) in Framingham, Mass.
Earlier this month, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) confirmed that a mysterious black fungus found in the vials of the tainted medication was the same fungus responsible for the disease.
This week, the FDA released a preliminary report stating that the pharmacy itself appears contaminated, which could have played a role in corrupting the medicine.
Among the health and safety violations, the agency found abnormalities in and around what should have been sterile work rooms. They included “green and yellow discolorations,” standing water from a leaky boiler, and visible dust filtering through the air conditioning system courtesy of a nearby recycling plant.
Machinery used to sterilize vials was also found to contain a mysterious residue, and against guidelines, staffers routinely turned off the air conditioning at night, rendering the drugs less stable.
The FDA emphasized that the report is based on "initial observations" and that the agency's investigation is ongoing.
29/10/2012 : Yahoo News.
0 comments:
Post a Comment