ATLANTA (AP) — A surgery center in Macon administered steroids to 189 people using drugs that have been tied to a nationwide meningitis outbreak blamed for five deaths.
Health officials said Friday that the Forsyth Street Ambulatory Surgery Center received steroids produced by New England Compounding Center in Framingham, Mass.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration found contamination this week in a sealed vial of the steroid at the company. Tests are under way to determine if it is the same fungus blamed in the outbreak.
Dr. J. Patrick O'Neal, director of Georgia's division of health protection, said 160 of the patients who received the drug in Macon have been contacted. None have tested positive for meningitis, though O'Neal said it can take an extended time for the disease to manifest itself.
