ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The CEO of Minnesota pain clinics that used a steroid now linked to a fungal meningitis outbreak says four patients have shown symptoms.
The patients have been directed to be tested for the disease.
Marsha Thiel heads Medical Advanced Pain Specialists, which has several locations in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. Thiel said Friday that the MAPS and Minnesota Surgery Center clinics are working with the state Health Department to track down about 700 patients who got the steroid product from a Massachusetts specialty pharmacy.
The steroid has been linked to 35 cases of a rare fungal meningitis in six states, including five deaths.
Thiel says the Minnesota clinics got the product on July 3 and stopped using it on Sept. 26. It was injected to relieve back or neck pain.
