You don’t have to be an infectious disease expert to be aware of this very alarming outbreak. Public health personnel and infectious disease physicians have been hard at work and have narrowed the source of this multi-state infection to a likely contamination event occurring at New England Compounding Center (NECC), the compounding pharmacy based in Framingham, MA that distributed the preservative-free methylprednislone acetate (an injectable steroid) linked to the outbreak. It has been in circulation since May 21st, 2012 and in the past couple weeks it and other products have been voluntarily recalled.
What a nightmare for the patients and families involved; for any patient who may have received an injectable steroid, for the physicians who gave the shots (surely someone is going to try to blame them after all we are always at fault), and for the company too. I really hope for their sake that their books are in order though this New York Times article hints at poor regulation and oversight.
There have been no cases in my state so far but I can imagine how difficult it was to make the diagnosis for the first few cases and I do appreciate all the hard work that has gone into tracing the source of infection. Mad respect to those folks. Too bad that federal agencies like the Center for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) and state health departments are facing budget cuts. Just because we don’t see and feel the actions of these hard-working people on a daily basis does not mean that they are a waste of taxpayer’s money. These sort of events require constant surveillance not just emergency responses. The West Nile virus outbreak in Dallas and the tuberculosis resurgence in Florida are other examples of what can happen when we decide that we the people have won the fight against microbes.
News Flash: We the people will not be winning the war against microbes anytime soon, and I do not just say this because I want to continue to have a job, or because of my general pessimistic outlook on life, or defeatist attitude, it simply is the truth. Survival of the fittest applies to these little buggers as well, and we, humans, need to be ever-vigilant if we want to stay in play too. That means supporting public health programs and antimicrobial drug development even though that’s hardly a profitable venture. And not only should we support that here, we should support that on the international level because we do live in a global economy…that emerging infection in Nepal can be seen in the United States in a twinkle of an eye thanks to modern advances in travel.
On a last note, though not to be facetious, you already know that the class-action lawyers are fast preparing their lawsuits right…with blank plaintiffs and defendants to be filled in later. Oh this world!
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