FDA says two new drugs linked to fungal meningitis outbreak – Elizabeth Cohen reports

The investigation into the fungal meningitis outbreak that has hit several states is now focusing on two new drugs that may be to blame. The disease that has killed 15 people has already been linked to contaminated steroid injections from the New England Compounding Center. Now the Food and Drug Administration says two other medicines are linked to illnesses. CNN Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen has the details.

Cohen reports that there was one patient who received a different steroid shot and now has meningitis, and two other patients who received a heart surgery drug for having heart transplants and now appear to have fungal infections. “These drugs were all made by the New England Compounding Center,” Cohen says, “so the FDA is saying that there’s more than just this one drug that we need to be worried about.”

On October 4th, the FDA told doctors and hospitals not to use anything by the New England Compounding Center. But the question remains whether these patients received drugs from the center before or after that announcement was made. Cohen says the FDA says “they don’t have that information.”

“In the end, it amounts to trust in doctors and hospitals that when they’re told, ‘stop using anything by this company,’ that they stop using anything by this company,” Cohen says.