Meningitis

Four more Marylanders have developed fungal meningitis after receiving a steriod injection for back pain as a national outbreak has grown to 170 victims in several states. In Maryland, 13 people have been diagnosed with the rare disease and 1,500 could have been exposed to it. One person in the state has died, but health officials have released no specifics about the case. The outbreak has been linked to the steroid methylprednisolone acetate that was produced and distributed by the New England Compounding Center in Framingham, Mass.

State health officials don't know how often Marylanders use medications mixed in facilities lacking safety oversight, like a Massachusetts facility linked to three deaths here, but a newly passed law could tell them — and help demonstrate a gap in federal regulation. Batches of sterile drugs from so-called compounding pharmacies will be subject to state review under the measure Gov. Martin O'Malley signed this month. And pharmacists and doctors who perform compounding, in which drugs are somehow altered from their Food and Drug Administration-approved form, will face an extra layer of permits and inspections for drugs used in Maryland.

The rapid decline in health and ultimate death of a woman from fungal meningitis at Johns Hopkins Hospital after she'd received a tainted steroid injection was outlined by a team of Hopkins doctors in a medical journal article released online Thursday. The article, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, says a 51-year-old woman arrived at a local emergency room at the end of August with a headache "radiating" from the back of her head to her face. She'd received the steroid injection a week earlier.

SARASOTA, Fla. - Around this time last year, Manny Machado spent his spring on a nomadic journey shuffling between the Orioles' minor league and major league camps. He wore No. 95. When he made appearances in the major league camp, he dressed in an auxiliary clubhouse isolated from the big league players. But after an early-August call-up from Double-A Bowie - a move that helped propel the Orioles to the playoffs - the 20-year-old Machado is entrenched in the clubhouse this spring.

Maryland health officials said Monday that two more people in the state have developed meningitis after receiving a steroid injection for back pain, as an outbreak that has afflicted 105 people nationwide continues to grow. Five people in Maryland have been diagnosed with the disease in the outbreak linked to the steroid methylprednisolone acetate that was produced and distributed by the New England Compounding Center. One person in Maryland has died of the disease and eight have died nationwide.

Technicians at the Cape Apothecary compounding pharmacy in Annapolis spend their days mixing drugs that are no longer sold commercially or creating specialized batches of medicine for patients such as children who can't handle the normal dose. Federal officials have linked a compounding pharmacy in New England to a multistate outbreak of meningitis that has infected 119 people, including eight in Maryland. The owner of Cape Apothecary said there is a big difference between his storefront drugstore and the New England Compounding Center in Framingham, Mass.: size.

Maryland could see new cases of meningitis for a month or more as health officials continue to search for new and past cases of the disease, which has sickened 50 people in several states who received injections of a tainted steroid. In the cases health officials are already aware of, the incubation period for the infections has been between two days and four weeks, but it's possible the period could be even longer for some, said Dr. Lucy Wilson, chief of Maryland's infection prevention and outbreak response program.

Christopher Taylor, the third-year University of Maryland medical student diagnosed last week with bacterial meningitis, was in fair condition last night at University of Maryland Medical Center, according to school officials. Although the Towson resident, 27, will need physical therapy and special care during his recovery, his doctors are optimistic. "Given the dramatic improvement he's made ... it would be fair to characterize his prognosis as encouraging," said Dr. Richard Colgan, who is overseeing Taylor's care.

John C. "Jack" Millhausen, an 84-year-old Fallston resident, is at least the second Marylander to die of fungal meningitis in a national epidemic that experts say is slowing but about which many questions remain. Millhausen died Nov. 15 at Gilchrist Hospice Care in Towson, his family said, not long after receiving a spinal shot of a contaminated steroid, several batches of which have caused nearly 600 cases of infections and 37 deaths across the country. Maryland health officials confirmed a second death in the state from the outbreak on Monday but would not confirm that it was Millhausen's, citing confidentiality rules.

A Loyola University Maryland undergraduate student is at a local hospital recovering from bacterial meningitis, a school spokesman said Thursday. The student was taken to the emergency room of the unnamed hospital Wednesday after being examined at the university health center, said spokesman Nick Alexopulos. The student was diagnosed with bacterial meningitis today and is in stable condition. Alexopulos did not give further details about the student or how  the disease was contracted.

A national outbreak of fungal meningitis linked to a tainted steroid killed two Marylanders. Nearly two dozen people living with the disease and hundreds of others who may have been exposed fear they may be next. Sheila Smelkinson began suffering in July from pain in her lower back and right leg that kept the Pikesville resident awake for all but a few hours each night. Cortisone shots, one in August and a second in September, relieved her discomfort - until she received a call informing her the medication was among batches contaminated with fungus in a Massachusetts pharmaceutical facility.

The pharmacy at the center of a fungal meningitis outbreak that has hit 19 states said Friday it has declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Massachusetts. The New England Compounding Center also said it plans to establish a fund to compensate those affected by the outbreak. The outbreak has sickened 620 people and killed 39. In Maryland, 25 people have gotten ill and two have died. The outbreak is linked to three lots of a steroid injection used to treat back pain that clinics and medical facilities bought from New England Compounding Center.

Anne Arundel County Public School officials said on Thursday the county Department of Health has not recommended additional cleaning steps to be taken amid the Tuesday death of a Glen Burnie High School junior, who had become ill the day before with symptoms associated with bacterial meningitis. School officials on Wednesday said that a letter was sent home to students' parents outlining the girl's death and providing information about bacterial meningitis. "The county Department of Health has not recommended any additional cleaning procedures for us outside of our normal daily cleaning procedures," said Anne Arundel schools spokesman Bob Mosier.

A junior at Glen Burnie High School in Anne Arundel County died Tuesday after becoming ill the day before with symptoms associated with bacterial meningitis, school officials said Wednesday. A letter was sent home to students' parents Wednesday outlining the girl's death and providing facts about bacterial meningitis, which is less contagious than viral meningitis but still deadly, said Bob Mosier, a school system spokesman. The girl's illness has not been confirmed by doctors or a medical examiner to have been from meningitis, but the school system - in consultation with the county health department - decided to move proactively to alert the school community in case meningitis is confirmed, Mosier said.

John C. "Jack" Millhausen, an 84-year-old Fallston resident, is at least the second Marylander to die of fungal meningitis in a national epidemic that experts say is slowing but about which many questions remain. Millhausen died Nov. 15 at Gilchrist Hospice Care in Towson, his family said, not long after receiving a spinal shot of a contaminated steroid, several batches of which have caused nearly 600 cases of infections and 37 deaths across the country. Maryland health officials confirmed a second death in the state from the outbreak on Monday but would not confirm that it was Millhausen's, citing confidentiality rules.

A second person has died in Maryland in connection with a fungal meningitis outbreak tied to tainted steroid injections that has resulted in hundreds of infections across the country, according to new statistics released Monday. In all, 25 cases have been identified in the state, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Details of the death were not immediately available. The first Maryland death was reported in October. Nationally, a total of 590 cases have been identified and 37 people have died in the outbreak, which involves patients who received steroid injections tied to the distributor New England Compounding Center in Framingham, Mass.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Orioles third baseman Manny Machado suffered from a bout of meningitis this offseason, but the organization's top young position player has recovered and is expected to be ready for spring training. Machado was hospitalized for a day and a half about a month ago, but he has since recovered. He resumed full workouts two weeks ago, and the Orioles consider the illness a non-issue. Orioles manager Buck Showalter told reporters about Machado's illness Tuesday afternoon during his media session at the winter meetings.