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Fungal meningitis deaths rise to 24, CDC reports

(MCT) — LOS ANGELES — The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Wednesday that a 24th person had died of fungal meningitis after receiving contaminated steroid injections. The latest victim had received an injection to treat back pain in Indiana, according to reports.

In all, the CDC said it had confirmed cases of fungal infection in 317 people, and meningitis in 54. All but two of the meningitis cases were sickened by infection with Exserohilum rostratum — a type of fungus that has been detected in unopened vials of steroids recovered from the New England Compounding Center, the Framingham, Mass.-based compounding facility that has been implicated in the outbreak. One meningitis patient was exposed to a fungus known as Aspergillus fumigatus; another, to Cladosporium (neither of which had been recognized as a cause of meningitis before now, the CDC noted Wednesday).

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