Tainted steriod medication not in Kentucky

Although the number of reported cases of fungal meningitis continues to increase, Kentucky is not listed as a state to have received the tainted drug causing the infection.

That information comes from Dr. Magdalena Kerschner, with Advanced Pain and Spine Institute in Maysville.  Kerschner's pain clinic administers epidural steroid injections for the management of pain, but Kerschner said Wednesday her patients are at no risk because her clinic purchases only Food and Drug Administration approved pharmaceuticals.

"There are no risks for my patients, my clinic is safe," Kerschner said, in an effort to reassure both her patients and the public.

Kerschner said her office has been receiving numerous calls from frightened patients asking if they are at risk of the fungal meningitis. As of mid-afternoon Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta had confirmed 137 cases and 12 deaths in 10 states: Tennessee, Michigan, Virginia, Indiana, Florida, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Carolina and Ohio.

She explained the tainted steroid medication related to the meningitis outbreak was produced at what is called a "compounding" pharmacy in Massachusetts.  She said the CDC has not listed Kentucky as one of the 23 states the tainted drug was shipped to between July and September.

A compounding pharmacy is one that purchases FDA approved drugs from other pharmaceutical manufactures and makes them into specific dosages and strengths for use by physicians or hospitals for a cheaper cost.

Kerschner said The New England Compounding Pharmacy products are not FDA approved and the fungus may have resulted from unsterilized conditions when remaking the drug and returning it to the vials.  As of Wednesday, the company has recalled all of its products.

She said she and other local medical professionals are working with the Buffalo Trace District Health Department on the situation and "all are alert for patients coming from other pain clinics."

Patients who receive epidural steroid injections need to be alert to the symptoms of fungal meningitis which are: headaches that will not go away, fever, stiff neck, sensitivity to light, weakness or numbness in any part of the body, slurred speech and increased redness or pain at the injection site.

Kerschner said it can take up to one month for the symptoms to appear after injection and an IV of anti-fungal antibiotics is the cure to the infection, which requires a hospital stay and can take as long as three months to be fully effective.

Fungal meningitis is an inflammation and/or infection of protective membranes around the brain and spinal cord. Meningitis, whether viral, bacterial or fungal, is very serious and can cause brain damage, strokes or death.  Fungal meningitis is not contagious and is extremely rare.