U.S. Congressman Fred Upton

Washington, DC, Oct 11 - U.S. Representative Fred Upton (R-St. Joseph), Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, has requested bipartisan briefings from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) regarding the recent fungal meningitis outbreak linked to contaminated spinal steroid injections.  A briefing has also been requested from the New England Compounding Center (NECC) of Framingham, Massachusetts, which federal officials have linked to the contaminated steroid solution.  According to the CDC, the outbreak has reached 170 cases, including at least 14 deaths.  Michigan is among eleven states reporting illness, accounting for 39 cases and three deaths.  The number of confirmed cases is expected to rise in the coming weeks given that 13,000 patients have been injected with the steroid nationwide.

“Our prayers are with the families here in Michigan and across the country whose loved ones have been lost or endangered because of this outbreak,” said Upton.  “As Chairman, my committee is now focused on uncovering the details of this outbreak, finding out what went wrong, and working to prevent another outbreak of this nature.”

Upton’s committee staff first contacted the FDA last Friday, October 5, 2012, to request a briefing on the outbreak.  On Tuesday, October 9, Upton was joined by other committee members requesting that the FDA and CDC briefings occur no later than Friday, October 12.  On October 11, Upton and fellow committee members requested full compliance from the NECC, including preservation of “all documents and communications that may be relevant to understanding how the product was contaminated and distributed as well as the business practices of the NECC in general.”  A briefing from the NECC has been requested no later than October 18.

According to the Michigan Department of Community Health, the suspected steroid medication was shipped to four facilities in Michigan: Michigan Neurosurgical Institute in Grand Blanc, Michigan Pain Specialists in Brighton, Neuromuscular & Rehabilitation in Traverse City, and Southeast Michigan Surgical Hospital in Warren.

The CDC advises that patients who feel ill or are concerned that they may have been a recipient of the NECC steroid should contact their healthcare provider immediately.  The CDC also reports that this form of meningitis is not contagious.