Politics & Government

Second Woman Gets Meningitis From Injection At Ocean State Pain Management of Woonsocket

New patient hospitalized after contaminated steroid shot linked to national outbreak.

 

A second woman in Rhode Island treated at Ocean State Pain Management of Woonsocket has been diagnosed with meningitis in the nationwide fungal meningitis outbreak from steroid injections made in Framingham, MA.

The case is the second in Rhode Island.

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The patient, a woman in her sixties from Lincoln, received spinal injections at Ocean State Pain Management on Aug. 31 and Sept. 21. She received treatment at an area hospital and is recovering, according to the Rhode Island Department of Health.

Ocean State Pain Management and New England Anesthesiology, which has offices in Warwick and East Greenwich ― received medication from some of three lots recalled by New England Compounding Center of Framingham, Massachusetts. These lots have been linked to a multi-state outbreak of meningitis following epidural steroid injection.

Find out what's happening in Woonsocketwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“HEALTH continues to work closely with these facilities and the entire healthcare community to ensure that any patient who develops symptoms related to this outbreak gets early and immediate definitive care,” said Michael Fine, MD, director of HEALTH. “We are monitoring this situation and continuing to participate in the national investigation being conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration.”
 
In total, 266 patients in Rhode Island received the recalled medication. Those patients have been notified both by mailed letter and through phone calls.
 
Additional lots of the medication, although not linked to the outbreak at this time, have also been recalled. 


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