DALLAS – North Texas medical centers are scrambling to determine if they have any of the medicines linked to the nationwide meningitis outbreak responsible for 19 deaths.
Medical City Hospital confirmed Wednesday it received some products from the New England Compounding Center, where the tainted drugs originated.
Medical City Dallas spokesman Chris Hawes issued the below statement:
"None of the products that Medical City received from NECC are currently linked to a known infection. Upon notification of the recall of NECC products, Medical City immediately stopped using them. Medical City supports the FDA in its decision to exercise an abundance of caution, and will fully comply with all FDA requirements in this case. We encourage any patients with questions to contact their physicians.”
Several other major medical centers, including UT Southwestern and Baylor Medical Center, told News 8 they did not receive any products from the NECC. All of that company's products have been recalled.
On Tuesday, federal agents raided the Massachusetts pharmacy linked to the rare meningitis outbreak. Investigators are trying to determine how 19 people died and more than 245 others, including a Texas woman, got sick.
Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Southlake injected 114 patients with the tainted steroids. The clinic Dallas Back Pain injected another 17, one of which was linked to the state's sole case of meningitis.
Both those health facilities have notified all the patients in question and are monitoring them for any symptoms. Texas Department of State Health Services officials say those 131 are the only patients who have been injected with the recalled drugs.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated the death toll from 15 to 19 on Wednesday. The Associated Press reported that most infections are a form of black mold. The majority of the meningitis cases came from tainted steroids injected into patients with back pain.
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