Health officials say they have now confirmed more than 90 cases of a rare fungal meningitis that has been linked to a steroid commonly used to ease back pain.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention posted updated figures to its website Sunday. The death toll stood at 7, the same number as a day earlier. The outbreak is spread across nine states, the same states reported Saturday: Florida, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee and Virginia.
The CDC figures show there are 91 cases in the U.S. altogether.
The steroid linked to the outbreak has been recalled, and health officials have been scrambling to notify anyone who may have received an injection of it. The Massachusetts pharmacy that made it has said it is cooperating with investigators.
In North Carolina, two confirmed cases have been diagnosed, and three North Carolina clinics are warning patients to look for symptoms of the potentially fatal disease, state health officials said Friday.
The patients who are being warned received spinal injections of drugs from a supplier suspected in the outbreak at High Point Surgery Center and Wilson Surgical Center during July, August and September, state Department of Health and Human Services said.
At least 94 patients received shots from the affected batch of drugs between July 1 and Sept. 30, said Zack Moore, state medical epidemiologist.
"The cases that we know about, most don't seem to develop symptoms until about one to four weeks but mostly about three weeks after the injections so I'd say we're not out of the woods yet," Moore said.
