Notice to Clinicians: Continued Vigilance Urged for Fungal Infections Among Patients Who Received Contaminated Steroid Injections [March 4, 2013, 16:30 ET (4:30 PM ET)]

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Continued vigilance urged for fungal infections among patients who received contaminated steroid injections
• Corporate Authors:
  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S.). Health Alert Network (HAN)
• Description:
  March 4, 2013, 16:30 ET (4:30 PM ET)
  
  CDCHAN-00342
  
  CDC continues to receive new reports of fungal infection among patients who were given injections of contaminated methylprednisolone acetate (M PA1) from the New England Compounding Center (NECC) in Framingham, Mass. Most of these recent cases have been localized spinal or paraspinal infections (e.g., epidural abscesses) in patients, although new cases of meningitis or arachnoiditis also have been reported. Because many of these new cases are among patients with minimal symptoms, CDC is reemphasizing the recommendation for clinicians to remain vigilant for fungal infections, especially in patients with mild or even baseline symptoms, and consider evaluation with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) if clinically warranted. This Health Alert Network (HAN) notice provides the following:
  
  • Information about the current status of the outbreak;
  
  • Recommendations for clinical management and follow-up of exposed patients;
  
  • Information about new revisions to web-based interim clinical guidance (http://www.cdc.gov/hai/outbreaks/clinicians/guidance cns.html); and
  
  • Notice of an upcoming CDC conference call to provide clinicians with additional diagnostic and treatment information.
  
  
• Content Notes:
  Notice of Possible Alert Expiration: The CDC Health Alert, Advisory, Update, and Info Service announcements, distributed by the Health Alert Network (HAN), were active on the date they were originally published. Publication dates have been added to Titles for clarity. A CDC Health Alert, Advisory, Update, and Info Service announcement may expire at any time. They may also be updated or superseded according to later developments. None of the CDC Health Alert, Advisory, Update, or Info Service announcements in the Stacks HAN Collection should be assumed to be current or active. Stacks preserves HAN announcements in order to maintain a record of past CDC actions. Stacks in not designed for up-to-the-minute notifications. For the list of current CDC Health Alert, Advisory, Update, or Info Service announcements, patrons should visit the Health Alert Network (HAN) webpage at https://www.cdc.gov/han/php/about/index.html. For up to the minute reports, subscribe to the HAN email alert system hosted by CDC News & Updates at https://tools.cdc.gov/campaignproxyservice/subscriptions.aspx?topic_id=USCDC_486
  
  Categories of Health Alert Network (HAN) messages:
  
  Health Alert: Requires immediate action or attention, highest level of importance.
  
  Health Advisory: May not require immediate action; provides important information for a specific incident or situation.
  
  Health Update: Unlikely to require immediate action; provides updated information regarding an incident or situation.
  
  HAN Info Service: Does not require immediate action; provides general public health information.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Anti-Inflammatory Agents/adverse Effects Disease Outbreaks Drug Contamination Injections, Epidural Injections, Spinal Meningitis, Fungal Methylprednisolone/adverse Effects Middle Aged Soft Tissue Infections Spinal Diseases
• Keywords:
  HAN Health Alert Network
• Source:
  HAN ; 342
• Series:
  Health Alert Network
• Subseries:
  CDC Health Update
• Publisher:
  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (U.S.)
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Alert
• Place as Subject:
  United States
• Rights:
  Public Domain
• Pages in Document:
  4 unnumbered pages
• Issue:
  00342
• Collection(s):
  Health Alert Network (HAN)
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:c50722ea80a7932347b443634d9876309cf7b6e9f828b267c600a67e3792a5ac755a36390ffbb9c353482c6aa159c8539e75c3c041ac716761969952311be15d
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/25251/cdc_25251_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.40 MB ]