FDA Releases Statement on Fungal Meningitis Outbreak

The Food and Drug Administration released a statement on the recent Fungal Meningitis Outbreak (http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/DrugSafety/ucm322734) from an injectable steroid produced by the New England Compounding Center. The steroid was administered to patients suffering from back pain at clinics in Tennessee, Virginia, and North Carolina. Web MD (http://www.webmd.com/news/20121003/4-dead-tainted-spinal-steroids) reported that the fungus was Aspergillus fumigatus, which is a mold often found in homes and buildings impacted with water damage. The U.S. EPA identifies it as a Group I water intrusion mold in the DNA based moldiness index or ERMI (http://www.epa.gov/microbes/moldtech.htm) . However, the FDA has yet to confirm the species identity of the fungus. The CDC. (http://www.cdc.gov/meningitis/fungal.html) states on their website that fungal meningitis is rare and lists several different fungi as infectious agents. They include: Cryptococcus, Candida, Histoplasma, and Coccidioides, but make no mention of Aspergillus, which suggests the current situation is extremely rare. PubMed (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=fungal%20meningitis%20Aspergillus%20fumigatus) lists 38 published medical articles related to A. fumigatus meningitis. Interestingly several of the articled discuss cases on meningitis linked to steroid injections for back pain, but they were not in the United States.

About the Author: Edward Sobek, PhD, MBA

Dr. Edward Sobek has 25 years of experience in microbiology and indoor air quality. He has a master’s degree in Plant Pathology from Iowa State University, where he studied Fusarium disease transmission in field crops. He received his doctorate degree from Texas Tech University where he studied the ecology of desert molds (mitosporic fungi). He obtained his Executive MBA in Healthcare leadership from the University of Tennessee's presidious Haslam School of Business in 2016. Dr. Sobek is an active researcher. He holds the appointment of Senior Research Scientist with the University of Tennessee’s Center for Environmental Biotechnology CEB and has developed and patented several mold detection technologies. He is a sought after speaker on the scientific circuit by educational and governmental organizations that are anxious to learn how to use DNA to detect mold in residential and commercial properties. He has also published a variety of scientific papers, book chapters, white papers, and trade articles for the IAQ industry.