Fears Multiply Following Meningitis Related Death of Howell WomanFears Multiply Following Meningitis Related Death of Howell Woman

10/9/12 - Following Monday’s news that a Howell Township woman was among the two Michigan fatalities of a fungal meningitis outbreak related to tainted steroid injections, local health officials say they are prepared to handle as many future cases of the potentially deadly disease as may arise. As of Monday, physicians within the St. Joseph Mercy Health System were treating 18 confirmed cases of fungal meningitis in patients who received epidural spinal steroid injections from one of the four identified clinics located in Brighton, Grand Blanc, Traverse City and Warren. A number of processes have been put in place within the health system and any patients who begin exhibiting symptoms are being referred to emergency departments for evaluation. The effort is being coordinated at a number of different of levels to ensure that at risk patients are appropriately identified and followed up with. While this particular form of meningitis is very rare, it is not contagious and only patients who received the epidural injections from one of four facilities that got contaminated shipments are at risk. Chief Medical Officer Dr. Lakshmi Halasyamani says the Brighton clinic has reached out to all of its patients and reviewed key symptoms for them to watch out for. Before they understood there was this sort of an epidemic linked to contaminated medication, she says patients probably were having some symptoms but weren’t quite sure what they were from. Now that there is a heightened sense of awareness, she says more patients are coming forward earlier and can be treated that much quicker. Dr. Halasyamani noted part of the challenge has been figuring out how to best manage these patients since they don’t have a lot of historical patients with similar syndromes to turn to and help guide their management. She says another issue has been the wide distribution of the compound nationally, with close to 18,000 vials of the medication sent out. She says everything is very new and still evolving but as a health system, they are working very hard to care for patients while helping the public understand their risks. Two women have died as a result of the outbreak including 67-year-old Lilian Cary of Howell Township. A memorial service for Cary is planned at 10am at MacDonald’s Funeral Home in Howell. The other death involved a 56-year-old woman, who was said to have been hospitalized at the time. (JM/JK)