Minn. confirms 2 new fungal meningitis cases

Published 11:49 am Wednesday, October 17, 2012

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The Minnesota Department of Health has confirmed two new cases of fungal meningitis, raising the state’s total from the national outbreak linked to tainted steroids to seven.

Spokesman Buddy Ferguson says the two new cases are a man in his 50s and a woman in her 40s. He says both were hospitalized, but more information on them and their conditions was not immediately available Wednesday.

He says they were among around 985 patients associated with six pain and surgical clinics in Minnesota that received injectable steroids linked to the fungal meningitis outbreak that were produced by the New England Compounding Center of Framingham, Mass. Almost all those patients have been contacted.

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On Tuesday, the department began contacting 129 clinics in Minnesota identified as receiving other suspect drugs from the pharmacy.