--- title: TIME Explains: What Started The Meningitis Outbreak? | TIME description: An outbreak of fungal meningitis has left dozens dead, and it all began at a compounding pharmacy in Massachusetts. TIME Explains. canonical: https://time.com/video/3aIRp4rE/ og:title: TIME Explains: What Started The Meningitis Outbreak? og:description: An outbreak of fungal meningitis has left dozens dead, and it all began at a compounding pharmacy in Massachusetts. TIME Explains. og:url: https://time.com/video/3aIRp4rE/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/3aIRp4rE/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: TIME Explains: What Started The Meningitis Outbreak? twitter:description: An outbreak of fungal meningitis has left dozens dead, and it all began at a compounding pharmacy in Massachusetts. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=556fbd6c-4460-4b0f-b16f-e71a2c17e49a&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) ## Video: TIME Explains: What Started The Meningitis Outbreak? [Watch (HLS stream): TIME Explains: What Started The Meningitis Outbreak?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/3aIRp4rE.m3u8) (1:47)  _Published 2012-10-22. An outbreak of fungal meningitis has left dozens dead, and it all began at a compounding pharmacy in Massachusetts. TIME Explains._ --- Jul 27, 2023 3:28 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Everything We Know About the Idaho Murders So Far](/video/Jp2fhZJ5/) ### Everything We Know About the Idaho Murders So Far [Boston Pharmacist in Deadly Meningitis Outbreak Cleared Of Murder](/video/zRrzLmis/) ### Boston Pharmacist in Deadly Meningitis Outbreak Cleared Of Murder [Two Doctors Brutally Murdered in Boston](/video/pMJjLtLF/) ### Two Doctors Brutally Murdered in Boston --- ## Transcript [00:00] An outbreak of meningitis cases has raised serious [00:02] questions about compounding pharmacies. Here's [00:05] what you need to know. [ MUSIC ] [00:13] Rare cases of fungal meningitis that has taken several [00:16] hundred and left more than a dozen dead have been [00:18] traced to tainted steroid injections made by a [00:21] Massachusetts company. The company is what's called [00:24] a compounding pharmacy. Rather than making [00:26] products on an industrial scale for the mass market, [00:30] they focus on making custom made prescriptions for [00:33] individual patients, much like Apothecaries used to do [00:37] for centuries. So a compounding pharmacist for [00:40] example, might take a pill and turn it into a cream for [00:43] someone who can't take the pill form. Or they may [00:47] remove preservatives, allergens like lactose, or dyes [00:50] and flavorings. Another reason that compounded [00:53] products are popular, because of drug shortages. So [00:57] when pharmaceutical companies decide to either stop [00:59] manufacturing a medicine or temporally shut down [01:03] production. Doctors and patients will turn to [01:06] compounded product. This is what happened with the [01:09] steroid shots called Methylpreddnisolone, that where [01:12] made by a Massachusetts company. These were [01:15] stocked in hospitals and clinics and doctors offices and [01:19] in most cases the doctors and patients didn't know [01:22] they were using compounded products. Because [01:25] compounded drugs are not approved by the FDA, [01:28] they're not regulated for safety and quality. Because of [01:32] the meningitis cases though, Congress is now [01:34] investigating the way that compounded products are [01:36] made and whether more regulations are needed to [01:39] ensure their safety and quality. [ SOUND ] ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"TIME Explains: What Started The Meningitis Outbreak?","description":"An outbreak of fungal meningitis has left dozens dead, and it all began at a compounding pharmacy in Massachusetts. 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