PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Twenty-five Rhode Island health-care providers have been asked to contact patients who received injected medications from the Massachusetts pharmacy linked to a national outbreak of fungal meningitis.
The Providence Journal reports (http://bit.ly/qYXi8C) that providers, including medical practices, pain clinics and hospitals, did not use the injectable steroids blamed for the meningitis but rather other drugs made at the now-closed facility.
Those other drugs have not been linked to ill- nesses. But the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says that because of the concerns about the pharmacy's sterility, out of an abundance of caution, patients who received these products should be alerted to the potential risk of infection.
A spokeswoman says the Rhode Island Department of Health contacted 25 providers to make sure they had seen the alert from the FDA.
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Information from: The Providence Journal, http://www.providencejournal.com
