Thursday, Oct. 4, 2012

ATLANTA (AP) -- Georgia health officials are helping to notify more than 150 people who may have received steroids produced by a firm tied to a meningitis outbreak.

U.S. health officials have reported that a shipment of steroids was sent to Georgia from the New England Compounding Center in Framingham, Mass. Department of Public Health spokeswoman Nancy Nydam would not identify which facility in Georgia received the drugs.

She said no one has reported becoming ill in Georgia.

Investigators this week found contamination in a sealed vial of the steroid. Tests are under way to determine if it is the same fungus blamed for a meningitis outbreak that has sickened 35 people in six states. Five people have died. All received steroid shots for back pain.

(Copyright 2012, The Associated Press)