UPDATE: FDA Recalls Drugs from 10 Middle Georgia Health Facilities, Some Say They Shouldn’t Be On the List

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – The Food and Drug Administration is asking public health officials to contact 10 Middle Georgia health facilities to recall drugs that came from a Massachusetts company that produced contaminated steroids. But, several of those facilities say they should not be on the list.

Jennifer Jones with the North Central Health District says the FDA told the public health department to contact 10 Middle Georgia health facilities because they received products from the New England Compounding Company.

“What they received were other drugs that were compounded in the same pharmacy as the first drug that was mentioned in the news that’s associated with fungal meningitis,” Jones said.

Jones says the Middle Georgia facilities that received NECC products that were recalled are: Associates Surgery Center, Coliseum Same Day Surgery Center, Eye Center of Central Georgia, Forsyth Street Ambulatory Surgical Center, GA Neurosurgical Outpatient Surgery Center, Piedmont Surgery Center, Renaissance Plastic Surgery-GA, Spa Medical, Washington County Regional Medical Center, and Houston County Medical Center.

Jones says the FDA is expanding the recall “out of an abundance of caution” and says the recall is not linked with any illnesses. But at least half of the health facilities that made the list say they shouldn’t be there.

The Coliseum Medical Center released the following statement:

“None of the products Coliseum Same Day Surgery Center received from NECC are currently linked to a known infection, nor were they purchased or produced by NECC after May 21, the date referenced in the FDA recommendation. We are complying with directives of the FDA.”

41 NBC News received the following statement from Spa Medical in Macon:

“Spa Medical was recently listed, as a company that had ordered products from NECC.  Spa Medical did receive a recall notice which was sent to any company that may have ordered products from NECC in the past.  Spa medical did not have any of their products at the time of the recall and had never ordered any of the products recently mentioned in the media.   They have in the past ordered some topically applied products from NECC.   However, Spa Medical has never used any injectable products from NEC.”

41 NBC also reached out to the other facilities and several came back saying they shouldn’t be on the drug recall list. Piedmont Surgery Center sent 41 NBC a statement saying:

“Piedmont Surgery Center confirms that it has never received or administered the tainted steroid affiliated with the fungal meningitis outbreak. Our company utilizes the services of two pharmaceutical suppliers that have confirmed that they do not have any connection to the tainted product distributed by the NECC. For questions, please contact Holly Taylor at 478.405.2350.”

The Renaissance Plastic Surgery says they purchased topical drugs from NECC, but those are not part of the recall. The Washington County Regional Medical Center says it hasn’t received any drugs from NECC in the last six months.

The Associates Surgery Center tells 41 NBC it has quarantined the drugs and is following FDA and CDC protocol. The surgery center says it has not notified its patients because the recalled drugs are not tainted.

The Eye Center of Central Georgia says there is a list of patients that officials are contacting. The eye center says its compiling fully with the recall and the recalled drugs have been removed.

41 NBC is waiting on a statement from the Houston Medical Center. We also called the GA Neurosurgical Outpatient Surgical Center but a call was not immediately returned.

Jones says there have not been any illnesses linked to the recalled drugs, but the health department is on standby in case anything happens.

“If we hear of any illness that looks like it may be even suspected to be associated, we would definitely get involved but at this point we’ve received no notifications of that.”

There is only one confirmed facility in Macon that was using a contaminated batch of steroids that is linked to fungal meningitis. The Forsyth Street Ambulatory Surgery Center gave contaminated spinal taps to 184 of its patients. Jones says there are no cases of meningitis in here Middle Georgia.