Excerpt
GWEN IFILL (Newshour): Finally tonight: the toll of the meningitis outbreak; 32 people have died so far, and more than 400 others have become ill; 14,000 people may have been exposed to the drugs injected to ease back pain.
The state of Tennessee was especially hard-hit, with 13 deaths.
Newshour health correspondent Betty Ann Bowser has a look at the personal impact there and the bigger questions surrounding this story.
BETTY ANN BOWSER (Newshour): Diana and Wayne Reed did everything together. They ate meals together, vacationed together, danced together, and of course, raised their two sons, Erik and Kevin, together.
So, 27 years ago, when Wayne was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, known as ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease, they fought that together, too. Diana was Wayne's primary caregiver, so it came as a complete shock when the 56-year-old died suddenly on Oct. 3 from fungal meningitis.
It was an even bigger shock when Wayne and her friends were told Diana had been injected with a contaminated steroid medication made at a compounding pharmacy in Massachusetts. Wayne has the same rare slow growing form of ALS as physicist Stephen Hawking, so he has trouble speaking. But his mind remains sharp and has not been affected.
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