CDC on the Fungal Meningitis Outbreak
The final item in the news this week is something about the fungal meningitis outbreak. What, you haven’t heard of it? Well, you must be living under a rock because it is the top news item for most news outlets right now. The unusual fungal meningitis outbreak that has come about because of what is suspected to be tainted steroid medications injected into patients with back pain as an epidural. They had fungus directly injected into the cerebrospinal fluid according to what researchers think happened. This is affected 15 states directly so far with actual cases of meningitis, and there are 26 or 27 states overall that could be affected because of the distribution of medications from this facility in New England.
Steroid Injections and Meningitis Outbreak
If you work in a facility or with patients that had steroid injections, this is something that you should be aware of. There also a couple of documented cases where patients got injections in other joints and develop fungal infections in the joint spaces where they received the injections. This is affecting a large number of patients. As of the time when I recorded this week’s episode, there have been 15 deaths reported with 214 confirmed cases and two of those are suspected cases of other joints being affected with fungal infection.
Later on in this episode we will get in to what happens in cases of Fungal Meningitis. You get that in the tip of the week. I know for my own sake, I needed more information. A lot of people have asked me my opinion of this of the fungal meningitis outbreak and asked me for information or try to verify something they’ve heard from someone. We certainly want to make sure that we are following this and understanding what’s going on.
CDC Resource for Fungal Meningitis
I urge you to go directly to the source. That is a www.CDC.gov. There will be a link in the show notes for that but you need to head over and get the information straight from the central depository of information for outbreaks like this. If you go right to the front page of the CDC site, there is a link right there at the top just for the meningitis outbreak. There is information you’re not only for laypeople but also some great information on treatments and recommendations for healthcare professionals.
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Find the links to this news item and all the additional resources from this episode of the Nursing Show here – Fungal Meningitis on Steroids and Episode 214.
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