Steroid drugs in Toledo removed as precaution

10/11/2012

Two Toledo area medical facilities have removed products that came from from the same center whose epidural steroid injections are linked to a fungal meningitis outbreak.

Larry Vasko, deputy health commissioner at the Toledo-Lucas County Health Department, did not identify the local medical facilities but said the affected products from the New England Compounding Center were not the potentially contaminated steroids.

A dozen deaths nationwide have been connected to the steroids, often used in back pain treatment. One Ohio and 28 Michigan fungal meningitis cases have been reported as of Wednesday afternoon.

No Toledo medical facilities had the steroid medication, Mr. Vasko said, but a couple received other material from the lab. He said the products have been pulled from shelves as a precaution, and there is no known contamination in those products.