Lawsuits begin to snowball over meningitis-tainted back pain drug

A recent outbreak of meningitis linked to the injection of contaminated medications has resulted in almost 300 infections and 21 deaths at the time of writing. The epidemic has spread to many East Coast states and has become a major concern for both health officials and NJ chiropractor practitioners.

According to the Center for Disease and Control, New York has just reported a fungal illness, making it the 16th state with outbreak cases. The others are Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.

Meningitis is caused by the inflammation of protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord. Tainted spinal injections would directly put germs into that part of the body.

Now patients exposed to the deadly outbreak are suing in effort to freeze the personal assets of executives at the New England Compounding Center, the pharmacy whose injectable steroids have caused the outbreak.

According to Reuters, Peter McGrath, a former federal prosecutor, said he was spear heading a civil case that alleges Massachusetts-based NECC and company officers Barry and Lisa Cadden and Greg Conigliaro are responsible for the tainted drugs. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of an unnamed plaintiff in Middlesex County Superior Court in suburban Boston, court records show.

The presence of the deadly Exserohilum fungus in vials of the NECC steroid used for pain injections has been confirmed by U.S. health investigators. They estimate that as many as 14,000 people may have been exposed to the contaminated medication.

Three potentially contaminated lots of the drug, methylprednisolone, were shipped to 76 facilities in 23 states. After confirming contamination in one of the three lots, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said they are checking the other two lots for the fungus, as well as additional injectable NECC drugs as a precautionary measure.

According to experts in physical therapy Freehold New Jersey, the purpose of these injections is to decrease the inflammation present in the back due to arthritis, protruding discs or other causes. It is the inflammation that causes the pain and the medication is an anti-inflammatory steroid drug. The treatment has become routine and the recent outbreak highlights the low regulations and oversight in the U.S. pharmaceutical industry.

Gov’t officials, lawyers investigate link between back pain injections and fungal meningitis outbreak

As many as 650 patients in New Jersey may have received steroid injections that health officials believe were contaminated with a fungus that is blamed for the recent meningitis outbreak in the United States, according to NJ chiropractor professionals in the state.

Government officials along with lawyers from the D’Arcy Johnson Day law firm have begun investigating the link between spinal injections of methylprednisolone acetate, a steroid used to treat back pain, and a multi-state outbreak of fungal meningitis.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said 119 patients in 10 states have been diagnosed with fungal meningitis, and 11 have died from the disease. All of the affected patients received steroid injections prepared by New England Compounding Center, a compounding pharmacy in Framingham, Massachusetts.

Health officials and non-profit group are using the recent meningitis outbreak to highlight the lack and failure of oversight efforts and government programs that are meant to prevent and monitor medical suppliers.

The CDC reports that six New Jersey medical facilities were using the steroids prepared by the Framingham pharmacy: Central Jersey Orthopedics Specialists in South Plainfield, Edison Surgical Center in Edison, IF Pain Associates/Isaiah Florence in Teaneck, Premier Orthopedics Surgical Associates in Vineland, South Jersey Healthcare in Elmer and Vineland, and Comprehensive Pain Management in Sparta.

“Each day, we’re learning about more fugal meningitis cases associated with this particular batch of drugs,” said Andrew D’Arcy, a Partner at D’Arcy Johnson Day, in a press statement. “We want to encourage patients who received injections at any of these six New Jersey medical facilities between May 21 and September 26, 2012 to be aware of the symptoms of fungal meningitis, to seek medical attention immediately if they believe they have been infected, and to understand their rights to institute lawsuits for medical malpractice and/or defective drugs if they are affected by the disease.”

The outbreak has cause headaches and fear for physical therapist Freehold New Jersey. New England Compounding Center shipped approximately 17,700 vials of methylprednisolone acetate to about 75 medical facilities in 23 states. The CDC estimates that as many as 13,000 people were exposed to the potentially contaminated drug before the pharmacy’s voluntary recall on September 26, 2012.

Fungal meningitis is not transmitted from person to person. The disease is treated with antifungal medications, usually administered through an IV line in the hospital.

Meningitis is an inflammation of the membranes that cover the brain and spinal cord. Symptoms of fungal meningitis include headache, fever, nausea, stiffness of the neck, confusion, dizziness, and discomfort from bright lights. It is important to note that patients may exhibit only one or two of these symptoms, and the symptoms may be mild. Most patients exhibited symptoms between one and four weeks after their injection.

Will Text-Neck Get More People to the Chiropractor?

“Text-neck” has been been named for the pain and discomfort that results from flexing your neck for an extreme amount of time over a cell phone. Now that cell phone users are spending more time on their smartphones and tablets, they are feeling the consequences of this habit in their necks. While seeing a chiropractor can help a number of treatments, “text-neck” has not been a normal reason to see a chiropractor until recently. Chiropractor Ocean County practice, for example, offers treatment for low back pain, neck and mid-back pain. Whether or not we will see this new terminology in chiropractor offerings depends if the terms sticks. Language and terminology can be an effective way to have people identify a problem and seek medical help. However, the term “text-neck” may not quite classify as medical terminology.