Another death has been linked to a tainted steroid injection in Michigan.
The Centers for Disease Control says five people in Michigan have now died as part of a fungal meningitis outbreak tied to the tainted injections. A sixth person from Michigan died in Indiana.
Angela Minicuci is with the Michigan Department of Community Health. She says state health officials have made contact with almost all the 1927 people who received the injections at four Michigan clinics.
Minicuci says the number of people who’ve been affected could grow beyond the 53 cases confirmed so far. Most of the cases involved meningitis, but there are a few that involved less dangerous joint infections.
“This fungal meningitis is not only very new to Michigan, but is very new to the CDC as well,” says Minicuci, “So not a lot is known about it…and whether or not the incubation period is longer than four weeks. But the majority of cases has been between one to four weeks.”
Minicuci says state health officials are looking at patients who received the tainted injections as back as far as May to see if there are any cases that haven’t already been reported.
Nationwide, more than 270 cases have been confirmed to be related to the meningitis outbreak. 21 people have died.
