Seven People Suffer Complications After Using Common Pain-Reliever - East Idaho News

Seven People Suffer Complications After Using Common Pain-Reliever

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Getty 041213 Injection?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1369582363545iStockphoto/Thinkstock(NEWBERN, Tenn.) — Seven people in Midwest and south are suffering complications after being injected with medicine routinely used to treat back pain and joint swelling, and health officials are on the case because this particular medication already has a controversial history.

The Food and Drug Administration is focusing their investigation on the Main Street Family Pharmacy, a small pharmacy in Newbern, Tenn.

Health officials say seven people developed skin abscesses after being treated with an injectable steroid made at the pharmacy that is possibly contaminated.

While there is no conclusive evidence that the drugs are contaminated, health officials recommend that doctors immediately stop using any drugs sold by the pharmacy, and are conducting a thorough investigation. It’s too soon to tell how many people were injected with the drug. It’s already been shipped to 13 states, including California and both Carolinas.

“They shouldn’t be in business if they’re doin’ that,” said Bob Newhouse, a Newbern resident. “When you talking about somebody’s health, that’s serious.”

The steroid in question, methylprednisolone acetate, is the same drug at the center of last year’s deadly outbreak of functional meningitis which killed 55 people and sickened more than 700. Those cases were traced back to a single pharmacy in Massachusetts.

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