A widening outbreak of fungal meningitis has infected 184 Americans and killed 14 immunocompetent people, this infection is typically seen in patients that are immunocompromised or people incapable of developing a normal immune response due to disease or malnutrion. Usually people develop fungal infections from breathing in fungal spores, but in this outbreak, the fungi were injected directly along the spines of patients who had received a steroid treatment for back pain. Dr. William Schaffner, an expert in infectious diseases at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville was interviewed. He states it is not certain how effective the treatment will be to the patients exposed to this drug. Even when people are treated for the infection, it is almost certain that some will be left with a disability because the infections cause tissue damage. It is estimated that for every hundred patients exposed to the steroid treatment, 5 percent or less are becoming infected, but many more have been exposed and may be infected. This fungi that has been injected next to our spines just do what they normally would do in nature, multiple and eat the tissue they are around. I would not place this Meningitis case under a natural disaster, but if left untreated could potentially affect many people in the U.S.
http://news.yahoo.com/q-experts-worry-meningitis-outbreak-224135564.html
No comments:
Post a Comment