Massachusetts officials close another pharmacy as part of a crackdown since fungal meningitis outbreak

Massachusetts officials said Sunday they had closed another pharmacy as part of a crackdown after an outbreak of fungal disease that has killed 25 people and made 344 sick.

They said a surprise inspection turned up unsaniitary conditions at Infusion Resource, a compounding pharmacy in Waltham, Massachusetts that prepares sterile, injectable medications. The facility was also administering injections, something it wasn’t licensed to do, said Dr. Madeleine Biondolillo, director of the state department of health’s Bureau of Healthcare Safety and Quality. Biondolillo did not say any products from the pharmacy were in any way linked to the ongoing outbreak linked to pain injections.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Saturday reported six new cases of fungal disease in the outbreak traced to steroid injections made by the New England Compounding Center in Massachusetts, bringing the total to 344 cases of infection in 18 states, with 25 deaths. Officials have closed NECC and a separate pharmacy with common ownership, Ameridose, has also closed.

[link to vitals.nbcnews.com]