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A variety of contaminated injectable healthcare products have caused human infections, but large outbreaks have been rare. Public health investigators recently presented preliminary data on a large multistate outbreak of fungal infections related to the injection of contaminated methylprednisolone purchased from a single compounding pharmacy.
Overall, 13,534 individuals were exposed to at least one of three lots of the contaminated product — 89% of them through epidural, spinal, or paraspinal injections. As of December 10, 2012, 590 cases of fungal infection had been detected in 19 states, and 37 case patients (6%) had died from complications related to the contaminated injections.
Additional data were available for 386 case patients (median …