Earth Watch Report
| 03.11.2012 | Biological Hazard | USA | MultiStates, [19 states] |  |
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Biological Hazard in USA on Thursday, 01 November, 2012 at 04:43 (04:43 AM) UTC.
| Description | |
| As compounding pharmacies at the heart of the ongoing meningitis outbreak are inspected and closed, the death toll rose to 28 on Tuesday, with 363 illnesses reported across 19 states. Three new fatalities — two from Michigan and one from Tennessee — have occurred since the last tally issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday. The latest numbers come days after Massachusetts officials closed a second compounding pharmacy after inspection revealed conditions that might threaten the sterility of its products. According to The New York Times, Waltham, Mass.-based Infusion Resource voluntarily surrendered its license over the weekend after inspectors found “significant issues with the environment in which medications were being compounded,” Dr. Madeleine Biondolillo, director of the Bureau of Health Care Safety and Quality at the Massachusetts Public Health Department, said at a press briefing. While she did not release details of what the inspection found, Biondolillo did say that patients had been receiving intravenous medications at the pharmacy, violating state law. The pharmacy shutdown followed news of unsanitary conditions at the Framingham, Mass., facility of New England Compounding Center, the plant at the center of the ongoing meningitis outbreak. On Friday, federal investigators said their tour of the plant found foreign, “greenish-black” material in some vials of the injectable steroid suspected as the cause of the illnesses. The contaminated product was one of a host of potential violations discovered during a recent inspection of the New England Compounding Center’s plant in Framingham, Mass., U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials said during a Friday press briefing. “The investigators observed approximately 100 vials of the steroid drug, which purports to be a sterile injectable drug, that had a greenish-black foreign material and a white filamentous [containing filaments] material inside,” Steven Lynn, director of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Manufacturing and Product Quality, said during a news conference Friday afternoon. Vials from the lot Lynn described were shipped by the company to customers this year, he said. The FDA tested 50 of these vials and all were contaminated with fungus, he added. The FDA also found the company was not able to keep its “clean room” clean, Lynn said. “A clean room is a space designed to maintain a controlled environment with low levels of airborne particles and surface contamination,” he explained. According to the report, the company failed to keep the air conditioner in the clean room running at night, which is standard practice to maintain the room’s humidity and temperature control. In the past, the company itself had found mold and bacteria in the clean room, Lynn said. “In addition, the investigators observed a dark, hair-like discoloration in a transition room that connects directly to a room used to formulate and fill the injectable products,” Lynn said. Massachusetts officials said last Tuesday that they had begun a criminal investigation into New England Compounding Center. They added that the company functioned as a drug manufacturer, producing drugs for broad use, rather than filling individual prescriptions for individual doctors, in violation of its state license, CBS News reported. According to published reports, state records show that the New England Compounding Center was plagued by problems as far back as 2006. Those records, obtained by the Associated Press under a public documents request, showed there was evidence of inadequate contamination control and no written standard operating procedures for using equipment, among other problems, at the facility. New England Compounding Center and Infusion Resource are both compounding pharmacies. These pharmacies combine, mix or alter ingredients to create drugs to meet the specific needs of individual patients, according to the FDA. Such customized drugs are frequently required to fill special needs, such as a smaller dose, or the removal of an ingredient that might trigger an allergy in a patient. |
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| Biohazard name: | Fungal meningitis (tainted steroid injections) |
| Biohazard level: | 2/4 Medium |
| Biohazard desc.: | Bacteria and viruses that cause only mild disease to humans, or are difficult to contract via aerosol in a lab setting, such as hepatitis A, B, and C, influenza A, Lyme disease, salmonella, mumps, measles, scrapie, dengue fever, and HIV. “Routine diagnostic work with clinical specimens can be done safely at Biosafety Level 2, using Biosafety Level 2 practices and procedures. Research work (including co-cultivation, virus replication studies, or manipulations involving concentrated virus) can be done in a BSL-2 (P2) facility, using BSL-3 practices and procedures. Virus production activities, including virus concentrations, require a BSL-3 (P3) facility and use of BSL-3 practices and procedures”, see Recommended Biosafety Levels for Infectious Agents. |
| Symptoms: | |
| Status: | confirmed |
Related articles
- FDA chief will testify at first meningitis hearing (miamiherald.com)
- CIDRAP: Meningitis outbreak toll rises as complications surface (crofsblogs.typepad.com)
- Meningitis outbreak infects 409, Congress summons FDA (cbsnews.com)
- 30 Dead in Meningitis Outbreak (abcnews.go.com)
- Bill Would Target Compounding Pharmacies (nytimes.com)
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