Nearly 200 in the U.S. may have been exposed to the deadly illness at the medical clinics, as public health officials rush to identify and test those at risk.
Tracking patients from the clinics has been challenging, Chiller said, because some people gave wrong names and contact numbers, or the information was transcribed incorrectly. Dr. Ivan Melendez, Hidalgo County health authority in Texas, has had better luck getting in touch with patients at risk, reaching almost all the 23 patients in Hidalgo County who had a procedure at one of the clinics. His worry: People aren’t taking the disease seriously, including local doctors.
Meningitis refers to inflammation of the layers of tissue that protect the brain and spinal cord. The inflammation can be caused by viruses, bacteria and even fungi. Regardless of the cause, symptoms can be similar, including:Unlike bacterial meningitis, in which cases symptoms typically develop three to seven days after exposure, fungal meningitis symptoms can take weeks or longer to develop, as the fungus continues to grow in the body.
Dr. Luis Z. Ostrosky, an infectious disease doctor in Houston who has treated meningitis cases, says that one reason doctors are so concerned is that the organism isolated in the two clinics appears to be Fusarium Solani, a fungus linked to a previous“From our experience in Durango, we saw an almost 50% mortality with these infections,” Ostrosky said. “That’s why we’re so concerned and so aggressive about the messaging.