In the News: Meningitis Continues to Spread Since First Reported on Friday

         Over the past week and a half, I have been making more of an effort to submerse myself in current news via multiple different media outlets. Friday morning, I was watching Boston News 7 WHDH when I first heard of the fungal meningitis outbreak. The report was from a Merrimack, N.H. when New England Pain Clinics learned that their patients’ injections contained the deadly strain of meningitis. At the time, only five had died and 35 remained sick from the viral outbreak in six states. According to the written report on the news channel’s website, the drugs are shipped to New Hampshire pain care clinics from New England Compounding Center in Framingham where the vials are suspected to be contaminated. The NECC shut down operations after learning about the contamination but by that time, the center had already shipped more than 17,000 vials across the country.

         In today’s news, the situation has worsened; according a Reuters story that ran in the New York Times. iPhone App. The update, out of Nashville, Tennessee, reported that health officials discovered an additional 27 cases of the fungal meningitis outbreak. There are now seven reported deaths and 91 infected in nine states; two more deaths, 56 more infected patients, and three more infected states than reported on Friday. By following this report and keeping up with the news online and on television, I am staying well informed on the state of affairs concerning national disease control.