Health officials monitoring local connection to meningitis outbreak

October 30, 2012

Twenty five people have died and hundreds more have contracted fungal meningitis from contaminated steroid injections. As KJZZ's Nadine Arroyo Rodriguez reports, two Arizona residents are linked to the outbreak.

The names of the two people in Arizona who received the tainted steroid have not been released. They received the pain shot while in other states. The Cronkite News Service reports that federal and local health department officials are aware of who they are and they're being monitored.

More than 300 people received the potentially contaminated steroid manufactured by New England Compounding Center in Massachusetts. The Food and Drug Administration is investigating how the fungus associated with meningitis got into products that should have been sterile.

Arizona Department of Health Director Will Humble told the Cronkite News Service the two local people, so far, haven't had any of the meningitis symptoms. He also said the Center for Disease Control has tracked down every single person who received an injection.