Last year’s deadly meningitis outbreak linked to contaminated steroid injections is a tragic reminder of the risks inherent in manual pharmacy medication compounding. Unsanitary conditions at the Massachusetts compounding pharmacy that made the injections resulted in fungal contamination of the drugs. The resulting outbreak sickened almost 750 people and killed more than 60.
Virginia was one of 20 states impacted, with 54 cases of illness and five deaths. As this paper reported, some of those who became ill continue to struggle with symptoms almost a year later.
Although this outbreak is an egregious example of medication compounding gone awry, it is hardly an isolated incident. In addition to product recalls from compounding pharmacies in Georgia, Florida, Indiana, Nevada, New Jersey and Texas, among others, the Food and Drug Administration continues to investigate adverse patient reactions to steroid injections produced by a compounding pharmacy in Tennessee.
In December, the journal American Health & Drug Benefits reported that medication errors from injectable drugs harm more than 1 million patients annually in U.S. hospitals. Adverse drug events due to injectable medications cost U.S. health care payers between $2.7 billion and $5.1 billion annually, an average of $600,000 per hospital.
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