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More cases of meningitis discovered in Virginia

Posted at 7:09 PM, Oct 04, 2012
and last updated 2012-10-05 12:39:29-04

VIRGINIA (WTVR)--    One person in the state has died and Roanoke hospitals say they are treating nine more for meningitis.

Thirty additional people in that are being evaluated after experiencing symptoms that are typical of the virus.

Health officials say all of these people also received a steroid injection that is believed to be linked to the outbreak.

The health department said it is looking into two clinics where patients may have become infected, one of those clinics is Insight Imaging in Roanoke.

In total, 26 cases nationwide that connected to a steroid injection used to treat back pain were reported to the Center for Disease Control. 

Dr. David Trump, the state epidemiologist for the Virginia Department of Health says the people who have been impacted by this all received a spinal injection that contained tainted medicine.

Only two outpatient facilities located in Southwest Virginia received the bad batch of steroids. Dr. Trump says at this point the Virginia Department of Health is not revealing the names of the two outpatient facilities.

He confirms all of the people who were infected in Virginia came from the southwest region of the Commonwealth. The CDC said two people have also died in Tennessee and another in Maryland.

Administrators at the two facilities are now busy contacting more than 500 patients who received the spinal injections.

Trump explains that the medicine now recalled and no longer in use, was manufactured at a compounding center in Massachusetts.

Those patients who are at risk here in Virginia and who were contacted by those two centers are urged to follow up with their physician and be evaluated.

Some of the symptoms that patients should look out for include headache and fever.

Trump also says they may experience problems with losing balance and falling down. He also adds some of the individuals, because of the infection, have had strokes.