12 Dead, 120 Sick From Rare Meningitis
LEMON: Florida now among the states reporting fatalities from a rare, non-contagious fungal meningitis. So far 12 people are dead: six in Tennessee, three in Michigan, one in Florida, one in Maryland and one in Virginia, another 120 are sick nationwide. So officials say contaminated steroid injections from a compounding pharmacy are to blame. Some experts say this was a long time coming here. Our senior medical correspondent is Elizabeth Cohen, and she spoke to a former FDA employee who sounded the alarm years ago. OK, before we talk about that, how worried should we be when you hear it's 12 people, some people may go, well, it's not going to affect me. This is beyond that.</s>ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I think this is worrisome because this isn't the only one. Nine people died in Alabama because of medicines made at compounding pharmacies. These medicines at compounding pharmacies are not regulated the way they are at a big pharmaceutical company. It's worrisome that we've seen these infections over the years.</s>LEMON: This is a big issue, then. OK, with that said, we've prefaced it, you spoke to a former FDA employee who sounded the alarm years ago. What did that FDA employee said?</s>COHEN: Right, so a woman named Sarah Sellers, who is pharmacist, testified to the U.S. Congress almost 10 years ago about sterility problems at compounding pharmacies. Seller said I have worked in these. I have concerns about non-sterile conditions and she urged for more federal oversight of these pharmacies. She then went on to work for the FDA. And something interesting happened there. She was hired, she says, to work on sterility guidelines, but it never happened. She never got to work on the project. She left in frustration and still there are no guidelines.</s>LEMON: Never released.</s>COHEN: Never happened. We talked to the FDA and they said that they are still in progress.</s>LEMON: What's taking so long?</s>COHEN: Well, according to Sarah Sellers, she thinks that money from the compounding pharmacy industry has slowed things down. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, this industry, one group in particular, has spent more than $1 million on lobbying in the past 10 years. And she thinks that that has made the feds kind of hold back. Now, to give them sort of their response, the federal government says the FDA has told CNN, we want to do more, too, but the industry challenges us at every step. I asked the industry about this, and they said no, we want these sterility guidelines to come out. We've been waiting for them for years.</s>LEMON: Do you think it will make a difference? You know, it's a cliche, is this going to be the wake-up call?</s>COHEN: You know, I think the wake-up call really probably should have been years ago. I mean, nine people died in Alabama in a similar situation last year. Those were nine lives. I think this is definitely bigger. There are more people. It's all over the country and these are people who were otherwise presumably healthy. And they were just coming in because of back pain, and they end up dead. So this may be the time that everybody sort of says, all right, no matter what, we've got to do the right thing.</s>LEMON: Give me some good perspective on this because there's always issues when it comes to medication, they correct it. It will be over in a little bit, but no, that's not what's happening here. This could get worse unless something is done.</s>COHEN: Unless somebody steps in. And this is such a basic thing. This is sterility in a processing center. I mean, sterility like you shouldn't have fungus in your medicine. There's nothing complicated about this. They just need to follow the rules.</s>LEMON: Thank you, Elizabeth.</s>COHEN: Thanks.</s>LEMON: Appreciate it. Mitt Romney's debate performance got him a bump in the polls. Can his running mate keep their momentum going as he prepares to go head to head with a seasoned debater? We'll go to Kentucky for a preview.