The Free Press, Mankato, MN

State, national news

October 13, 2012

Fourth Minnesotan has meningitis linked to tainted steroids

Associated Press

MINNEAPOLIS — There is a fourth Minnesota resident who has meningitis linked to tainted steroids.

The Minnesota Department of Health announced the fourth case Saturday.

The state has said two of the three Minnesota women who developed meningitis had been released from the hospital and the third was expected to leave soon. 

Health officials said more than 800 Minnesotans may have been exposed to the tainted steroids when they received spinal injections at two Twin Cities clinics, Medical Advanced Pain Specialists and the Minnesota Surgery Center.

The drug has sickened about 200 people in 13 states, killing 15. 

New England Compounding Center in Framingham, Mass., recalled about 17,000 vials of the steroid after investigators found three lots were contaminated by a fungus that can cause meningitis and strokes.

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