Contaminated drug linked to deadly US meningitis outbreak

CHICAGO (AFP) - A contaminated drug has been linked to a deadly outbreak of meningitis that has claimed the lives of at least five
people and sickened 42 others in seven United States (US) states, health officials said on Friday.

Public health officials were contacting patients in 23 states who received the potentially contaminated steroid injection – typically for back pain – and urging them to be tested for the rare fungal infection.

“All patients who may have received these medications need to be tracked down immediately,” Benjamin Park of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement.

“It is possible that if patients with infection are identified soon and put on appropriate antifungal therapy, lives may be saved.”