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Meningitis Outbreak
Health officials say one week from today the greatest danger for the Meningitis outbreak will be over in Tennessee. They say the state could still see new cases after November 8, but they may not be as serious. Even at 78, Judge Eddie Lovelace had big plans for the coming years. All of that changed with a seemingly safe medical procedure to relieve back pain with a spinal steroid injection. Lovelace died September 17. He's possibly the first death attributed to the tainted injections produced by the New England Compounding Center, but there are reasons to believe the Meningitis outbreak that followed is on its way out of Tennessee.
"We believe we're gonna see people out a few months though the numbers are going to be small," says Tennessee Department of Health Chief Medical Officer David Reagan.
Reagan says the period of greatest risk for people who received injections here will be over next week. Since the beginning of October, there have been fewer and fewer new patients identified. Officials believe the cases that pop up after November 8 will be less severe, and they continue to feel optimistic by the fact other medication produced by the New England Compounding Center haven't produced infections in Tennessee. Good news for an outbreak that killed people in good health. Health officials say one of the biggest challenges with the outbreak was finding people to tell them they could be at risk for Meningitis. Dozens didn't respond to phone calls or emails and 3 people were out of the country when they developed symptoms.
Thursday, November 1 2012, 04:31 PM CDT
"We believe we're gonna see people out a few months though the numbers are going to be small," says Tennessee Department of Health Chief Medical Officer David Reagan.
Reagan says the period of greatest risk for people who received injections here will be over next week. Since the beginning of October, there have been fewer and fewer new patients identified. Officials believe the cases that pop up after November 8 will be less severe, and they continue to feel optimistic by the fact other medication produced by the New England Compounding Center haven't produced infections in Tennessee. Good news for an outbreak that killed people in good health. Health officials say one of the biggest challenges with the outbreak was finding people to tell them they could be at risk for Meningitis. Dozens didn't respond to phone calls or emails and 3 people were out of the country when they developed symptoms.
Thursday, November 1 2012, 04:31 PM CDT
