Midwest Voices

Lewis Diuguid

The Kansas City Star

The outbreak of meningitis indicts the U.S. system of quality control in the preparation and administration of drugs.

So far 205 persons in 14 states have reported being infected with meningitis traced to steroid shots that were contaminated. Fifteen persons have died, the U.S. Center for disease Control and Prevention reported Sunday.

The cases are tied to contaminated steroid injections that people have routinely taken for back pain. About 14,000 people may have received the injections, the CDC reports.

The meningitis that people are getting is caused by a fungus that can become severe. It causes an inflammation of the protective membranes covering the spinal cord and brain.

People have to ask where the government oversight was in looking out for the safety of consumers in such drug use.

People also have to wonder whether other slip-ups have occurred in the political conservative furor to soften regulations and government enforcement, which might put more people at risk of serious illnesses or deaths.

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