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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, October 18, 2012
CONTACT: Barb Buhler, (605) 773-3361
South Dakota Reports No Cases In Multistate Meningitis Outbreaks;
13 Clinics In State Notified To Contact Patients
PIERRE, S.D. – The South Dakota Department of Health has contacted 13 health care facilities identified as receiving drugs from a Massachusetts firm linked to a multistate outbreak of fungal infections, including meningitis.
The clinics were identified this week, based on information provided by the FDA and the New England Compounding Center (NECC), which produced the drugs.
South Dakota has reported no cases in this outbreak. It is not known at this time how many patients in South Dakota received the NECC products.
On Oct. 3, the FDA recalled the steroid injections implicated in the outbreak; this week FDA recalled additional products as a precautionary measure. No South Dakota facilities were identified as receiving the NECC drugs in the initial recall.
“We have contacted every South Dakota facility identified as receiving drugs on this week’s expanded recall list,” said Bonnie Jameson, disease prevention administrator for the state Health Department. “We’ve instructed them to suspend use of the NECC products and notify any patients who had received them to be alert for the signs and symptoms of infection, including meningitis.”
The signs and symptoms of meningitis include fever, headache, stiff neck, nausea and vomiting, sensitivity to light and altered mental status. Symptoms for other possible infections may include fever; swelling, increasing pain, redness, warmth at injection site; visual changes, pain, redness or discharge from the eye; chest pain, or drainage from the surgical site.
Patients should contact their healthcare providers if they have any of these signs or symptoms.
Jameson said the department has also issued a health alert to providers statewide asking them to review purchasing records and inventory to make sure they have not received any NECC products on the recall list.
More information about the outbreak and the ongoing investigation can be found on the CDC site: www.cdc.gov/HAI/outbreaks/meningitis.html or the FDA site: www.fda.gov/Drugs/DrugSafety/ucm322734.htm
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A List Of South Dakota Facilities Known To Have Received NECC Recalled Products
- Brookings Ambulatory Surgery Center LLP, Brookings
- Bruening Eye Specialists, Dakota Dunes
- Siouxland Surgery Center, Dakota Dunes
- Anderson Orthopedics, Rapid City
- Black Hills Plastic Surgery, Rapid City
- Black Hills Regional Eye Institute, Rapid City
- Black Hills Surgical Hospital, Rapid City
- Rapid City Medical Center, Rapid City
- Rapid City Regional Hospital, Rapid City
- Sanford Clinic for Ophthalmology and Optometry, Sioux Falls
- Dakota Dermatology, Sioux Falls
- Lazaderm Skincare Centre, Sioux Falls
- Innovative Procedural Center, Watertown