More people become sickened by tainted steroids

BALTIMORE - Another person in Maryland has been sickened by meningitis that came from a batch of tainted steroids used by to treat back pain.

The tainted steroid injections came from the New England Compounding Center.

The center takes different ingredients used in epidural injections and mixes them into prepackaged bottles or syringes for doctor’s use.

 That includes the substance that the FDA says is the culprit here.... Methyprednisolone acetate. A steroid.

The Food and Drug Administration says those pre packed epidurals tainted with meningitis were sent to 23 states including Maryland and has sickened 105 people and cause several deaths.

Doctors say an epidural for severe pain control have been a standard treatment.

“We radiating pain patient after surgery when they form scar tissue around the nerves patient with a fractured spine or broken spine it can be helped with this. ”  Doctor Ibrahim Elsamanoudi of Union Memorial Hospital says.

At least three people in Maryland have been made sick by this....one person has died.

The Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene says these seven centers in Maryland used the prepackaged steroid epidural for pain treatment:

 Berlin Interventional Pain Management, Berlin, MD

 Box Hill Surgery Center, Abingdon, MD

 Greenspring Surgery Center, Baltimore, MD

 Harford County Ambulatory Surgery Center, Edgewood, MD

 Maryland Pain Specialists, Towson, MD

 SurgCenter of Bel Air, Bel Air, MD

 Zion Ambulatory Center, Baltimore, MD

All have since stopped using the any drugs from this manufacturer.

Doctor Elsamanoudi says Medstar Hospitals have never used any products from the New England Compounding Center they use a sterile epidural kit that has to be mixed by the physician before it's used.

He says the fact that the shot is administered directly to the spine is why this has proven to be so damaging.

“the other form of doing an epidural us outside where the opening comes out of the spine so when we do an epidural with the needle inside the spinal canal infection can spread faster if because it's a closed space. ”  Dr. Elsamanoudi says.