Meningitis Outbreak: Dothan Health Care Professionals Say We're In The Clear
By: Jamiese Price
Updated: October 5, 2012
In an interview on Friday afternoon health officials with Flowers Hospital said none of their patients received the contaminated drug, methylprednisolone acetate, linked to the deadly outbreak of menengitis. Flowers Hospital's Clinical Coordinator and Assistant Director of Pharmacy Lance Hagler said they use the steroid, in question, but they did not get the drug from the compound linked to the outbreak.
Hagler said, ""Patients who received a steroid shot in the hospital can be perfectly assured these lots this did not come from the New England Compound Center."
The drug is commonly used for Epidurals as a treatment for back pain. The drugs have been linked to the New England Compounding Center in Framingham, Mass.
Dr. Charles Harkness with Southeast Alabama Medical Center said they immediately conducted an internal search when the news broke about the contaminated steroids.
Harkness said, "The same Prednisone steroid that we use for those types of injections at the Medical Center we get from Pfizer lab."
The type of meningitis involved is called fungal meningitis, and is not contagious like the more common bacterial and viral forms. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports 50 cases of the fungal.
