A congressional hearing tomorrow will look into a fungal meningitis outbreak that has sickened hundreds of people in 19 states, including Michigan.
Tainted steroid injections used to relieve back pain are blamed for the outbreak.
Nationally, more than 400 people have fallen ill. 32 have died.
Michigan has the highest number of cases at 128. Nine people from Michigan have died.
Angela Minicuci is a spokeswoman for the Michigan Department of Community Health. She expects the number of new cases to slow in the coming weeks.
“Injections were still being given out in Michigan at the beginning of October,” says Minicuci, “Now we’re about a month past that. So we’re assuming that, while we may see a handful more cases over the next few weeks, we should begin to see the end of cases in Michigan fairly soon.”
Minicuci says patients appear to develop the disease within a month of receiving the injection.
