Meningitis News and Research

Latest Meningitis News and Research

U.N. agencies publish 'Atlas' linking climate, health

"Two U.N. agencies on Monday presented a new tool to map health risks linked to climate change and extreme weather conditions, enabling authorities to give advance warnings and act to prevent 'climate-sensitive' diseases from spreading," Agence France-Presse reports.

1 Nov 2012

FDA: Ameridose voluntarily recalls all unexpired drug products in circulation

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced today that Ameridose, LLC, based in Westborough, Mass., is voluntarily recalling all of its unexpired products in circulation.

1 Nov 2012

Fla. suspends compounding pharmacy as report slams lax oversight

The fallout from a deadly meningitis outbreak continues as Florida suspends operations at one compounding pharmacy, while a report finds state oversight of the facilities lacking.

31 Oct 2012

State roundup: Hurricane Sandy has east coast hospitals scrambling

Healthcare providers on the East Coast have spent the weekend preparing for Hurricane Sandy, with hospitals canceling elective surgeries and discharging patients to free up beds.

30 Oct 2012

FDA report says pharmacy knew about contamination problems

A federal inspection of a company whose tainted pain medicine has caused one of the worst public health drug disasters since the 1930s found greenish-yellow residue on sterilization equipment, surfaces coated with levels of mold and bacteria that exceeded the company's own environmental limits, and an air-conditioner that was shut off nightly despite the importance of controlling temperature and humidity.

29 Oct 2012

Viewpoints: Washington Post endorses Obama; GOP Senate candidates hurting party's reach to women; 'Too much choice' in Medicare?

Mr. Obama is committed to the only approach that can succeed: a balance of entitlement reform and revenue increases. Mr. Romney, by contrast, has embraced his party's reality-defying ideology that taxes can always go down but may never go up. Along that road lies a future in which interest payments crowd out everything else a government should do, from defending the nation to caring for its poor and sick to investing in its children.

29 Oct 2012

Contaminated drug passed lab test

Products from the Massachusetts pharmacy linked to the deadly meningitis outbreak passed a lab test in May, reports The Wall Street Journal. In addition, the pharmacy dodged a reprimand by Massachusetts regulators in 2004 after protesting it would be "fatal to the business." The company's founders come under scrutiny by media outlets as more people file lawsuits.

26 Oct 2012

Artificial CSP proteins reduce S. pneumoniae competence y more than 90%

The bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae - which can cause pneumonia, meningitis, bacteremia and sepsis - likes to share its antibiotic-defeating weaponry with its neighbors. Individual cells can pass resistance genes to one another through a process called horizontal gene transfer, or by "transformation," the uptake of DNA from the environment.

26 Oct 2012

$Epidural steroid injection may increase risk of bone fractures$

Epidural steroid injection may increase risk of bone fractures

Patients treated with an epidural steroid injection for back pain relief are at increased risk of bone fractures in the spine, according to a Henry Ford Hospital study.

26 Oct 2012

Meningitis outbreak spreads; Mass. revokes Compounding Center's license

The Massachusetts Board of Pharmacy has permanently revoked the license of the New England Compounding Center, the facility implicated in a nationwide outbreak of fungal meningitis, Gov. Deval Patrick announced Tuesday. ... State Director of Healthcare Safety Madeleine Biondolillo said ... investigators witnessed "black particulate matter" in some vials of medicine returned amid the nationwide recall of NECC's products.

25 Oct 2012

Viewpoints: Obama seeking 'to preserve' new spending; Medicare rule change for disabled is 'humane thing to do'

On Tuesday Mr. Obama finally tried to give the future more definition with a new plan, except it isn't new and barely qualifies as a plan. ... The pamphlet's sections on health care and entitlements show that his real budget priority is to preserve all of the government he expanded in the first term. He promises to protect the Affordable Care Act from repeal or Republican amendments.

25 Oct 2012

New method of testing for West Nile virus

While the United States has largely been spared the scourge of mosquito-borne diseases endemic to the developing world-including yellow fever, malaria and dengue fever-mosquito-related illnesses in the US are on the rise. One pathogen of increasing concern in the U.S. is an arbovirus known as West Nile.

24 Oct 2012

Lessons can be learnt from US fungal meningitis outbreak

As the current outbreak of fungal meningitis caused by contaminated methylprednisolone acetate injections continues to spread across the USA, past experience suggests that lessons can be learnt, says a US researcher.

24 Oct 2012

Meningitis outbreak linked to pharmaceutical compounding has long history

News outlets report that the FDA released a list of customers - including some major hospitals - of the New England Compounding Center. But the FDA later "found technical problems" and withdrew the list, promising to repost it as soon as the data are corrected.

24 Oct 2012

NEJM report on best options for safe, effective patient treatment against fungal meningitis

As the number of fungal meningitis cases continues to rise, physicians across the country are faced with how best to provide the early treatment that can save lives.

24 Oct 2012

SUNY Downstate to join Neurological Emergencies Treatment Trials network

SUNY Downstate Medical Center has been selected by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to join the Neurological Emergencies Treatment Trials (NETT) network, which is dedicated to improving emergency care for neurological injuries that require immediate care, such as stroke, seizures, and traumatic brain injury, as well as other illnesses affecting the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system.

24 Oct 2012

First Edition: October 23, 2012

Today's headlines include various reports from the campaign trail as well as the latest news about current meningitis outbreak.

23 Oct 2012

Medicare's policy on compounded drugs under scrutiny; Lawsuits growing in meningitis outbreak

The Associated Press reports on the role Medicare plays in national drug purchasing and The Washington Post finds the "race is on" to sign up clients for lawsuits.

22 Oct 2012

First Edition: October 22, 2012

Today's headlines include the latest news about how health policies are playing on the campaign trail as candidates move into the home stretch.

22 Oct 2012

The main culprit in the meningitis outbreak

"The Centers for Disease Control have identified the culprits from a handful of fungal meningitis cases, and most often they've found a fungus called Exserohilum. This is a genus of molds. Its 19 species usually cause leaf diseases of grasses, including crops like corn and millet, and are not a danger to people or animals. But a few Exserohilum species can also infect us, though they do so very rarely.

20 Oct 2012