• MAN-MADE EPIDEMIC A nationwide outbreak of a rare and deadly form of meningitis killed 64 people and
sickened more than 750 who received contaminated steroid injections from the New England Compounding Center.
Compounding
T A I N T E D S T E R O I D S
How the deadliest medication contamination case in
U.S. history happened — and how it could happen again.
Outpatient Surgery Editors
F
rom the Boston Strangler to the Marathon
Bombings, Beantown has had its share of
spectacular killings. But the deadliest, most
chilling of them all may turn out to be the
medication contamination case going on trial
this winter. At least 76 surgery centers, hospitals and pain
clinics injected the hips, joints and backs of patients with
steroids they'd bought from a family-run compounding
pharmacy in a suburban Boston strip mall. Little did they
know that a deadly fungus growing in many of the vials
would spark a meningitis outbreak that would kill 64 peo-
ple and sicken more than 750 others. All right under the
government's nose. You may think you know the New
England Compounding Center story, but you probably
don't. And you should. Because without the vigilance of
people like you, it can — and some think probably will —
happen again, maybe on an even larger scale.
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