Your Say: As deaths from meningitis rise, so do worries

As of Sunday, 23 people had died in the meningitis outbreak from tainted steroid shots linked to the New England Compounding Center (NECC). Comments from Facebook:

What happened with the NECC is nothing short of catastrophic, but compounding pharmacies help meet the critical demand for important drugs.

Greg Perry

This epidemic is unnecessarily scaring patients. The problem is a contaminated drug from a compounding pharmacy. The problem is not with the procedure. Many epidural injections have been performed without incident, successfully relieving pain and avoiding surgery. I hope the news media will focus on this and not scare the public.

Sairam Atluri

MORE ABOUT TREATMENT

There shouldn't be any questions about the steroid shots for back pain. I have personally had them, and they are a great break from pills. These cases come down to the handling of the medicine.

Andrew Pearson

This procedure is a misguided way to treat back pain. In my opinion, these patients have died due to an abuse of this procedure.

Stephen S. Rodrigues

I have found great pain relief from epidural injections for more than nine years. I never asked where the drug was made. Now I will ask every time.

Lois Jean McLaughlan

I feel bad for these people. All they wanted to do was to control back pain.

Chris Lynch

REGULATIONS THE ANSWER?

Another example of stronger federal regulations and enforcement being needed (contrary to Mitt Romney's promise to weaken regulations).

Doug Larson

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) hasn't been doing its job for years.

Jack Barnes

The government needs to get rid of the FDA and let a private company monitor the drug industry.

Caesar Alarcon

Does anyone have statistics on the probability of death due to error by traditional mass pharmaceutical companies vs. compounding pharmacies?

James Oerichbauer

CONCERNS ABOUT OVERSIGHT

Comments from Twitter:

If a pharmacy looks like a drug manufacturer, it should be regulated as such and meet the same quality standards.

-- @drugwonk

Control charting and process management are important to protect the fluid used for various shots.

-- @globalmacro646

80% of ingredients in U.S.-made drugs and 40% of finished medications Americans take come from abroad.

-- @BreanneMT

It is only a matter of time before every medicine has its own meningitis-type tainting scare.

-- @ShawnAbnoxious

Maybe sometimes we need government to stifle business ... from killing you! Free market = less regulations = fungal meningitis?

-- @MarksBigMouth

Meningitis is letting loose on America. Thousands more are at risk of infection. Please talk to your doctor.

-- @Love4Discipline