BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) -
Baton Rouge pain specialist Mike
Burdine, M.D. spent much of his Friday calming nervous patients.
Health
officials say 75 facilities in 23 states may have received tainted steroids. The Center for Disease Control says 47 people in seven states have contracted
fungal meningitis. Five people have died.
Dr. Burdine has been talking to his
patients here in Baton Rouge.
"Basically we're telling our
patients from our perspective they don't have anything to worry about, "Says
Burdine. "We use a product from a national manufacturers. We have not or would
ever use products from these compound pharmacies that are unfamiliar. What
we're doing continues to be safe and effective."
Health officials say they expect
to see the number rise. Burdine says the location of the shot is what's setting
off the meningitis.
"The reason it's such a problem
with us is when we do the injections they're right up against the covering of the
spinal cord," says Burdine. "So if there is any type of contamination, it goes
right to meningitis and that's where the problem is coming about."
He adds that at Spine
Diagnostics, they get their product from another manufacturer.
Burdine is a board-certified pain management physician. He also
sits on the Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners.
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