Health Watch

Billings health clinics take precautions against meningitis

Posted: Oct 19, 2012 12:56 PM by Q2 News

The nation has been keeping a close eye on a deadly meningitis outbreak that originated from an East Coast facility.

There has been no evidence that any infected steroid medication has reached Montana, but local healthcare providers are taking precautions anyhow, a spokesperson from RiverStone health wrote in a press release Friday.

The meningitis outbreak comes from injectable steroid medications originating from New England Compounding Center in Framingham, Mass.

Billings Clinic, The Eye Clinic, St. Vincent Healthcare and Yellowstone Surgery Center are all mailing letters to patients who received any injectable drugs produced at NECC. That adds up to about 1,200 people who were treated with an injectable NECC product after May 21, 2012.

So far, the outbreak has sickened 254 people and caused 20 deaths across the country.