Meningitis Death Toll Reaches 12

(Newsroom America) -- A rare fungal meningitis believed to have come from contaminated medications has now killed twelve people in the United States with 137 infections reported in ten states.

CDC said deaths have been reported in Florida (1), Maryland (1), Michigan (3), Tennessee (6), and Virginia (1).

Health officials say this type of meningitis is not transmissible from person-to-person and is believed to have come from contaminated medicine.

On September 21, CDC was notified by the Tennessee Department of Health of a patient with the onset of meningitis approximately nineteen days following epidural steroid injection at a Tennessee ambulatory surgical center.

On September 28, investigators identified a case outside of Tennessee, possibly indicating contamination of a widely-distributed medication.

Investigation into the exact source of these infections is ongoing, but all infected patients received preservative-free methylprednisolone acetate from among the three lots voluntarily recalled by the New England Compounding Center (NECC) in Framingham, Massachusetts, on September 25th.

The 23 states that received the recalled medication include California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Nevada, New York, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Texas, and West Virginia.

Infected patients have surfaced about one to four weeks following their injection with a variety of symptoms including fever, new or worsening headache, nausea and symptoms consistent with a stroke.