Meningitis deaths rise to 14

BOSTON (WWLP) - A national meningitis outbreak linked to a Massachusetts pharmacy continues to rise. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there are 14 people dead and 170 people infected with rare fungal meningitis.

The deadly outbreak is tied to contaminated steroid injections manufactured at a "compounding pharmacy" in the eastern part of the state. Governor Deval Patrick says the New England Compounding Center of Framingham may have deceived state and federal authorities. While the facility is permitted to customize drugs for individual customers, they are not licensed to manufacture prescriptions in bulk, which the governor says they did.

“I will say it does seem like we, like the agencies both at the state and the federal level may have been misled. What they were doing instead is making big batches and selling them out of state as a manufacturer would and that is certainly out of their state license and authority,” Governor Patrick said.

A second pharmacy connected to the specialty pharmacy was shut down on Wednesday.

As many as 13,000 people in 23 states may have received the tainted supply of steroid medication.