In recent events, we have realized at times you must be careful with the vaccines your doctor or a healthcare professional might inject you with. Vaccines are made to help improve immunity from a sickness or disease. During the year of 2012 the United States has encountered a fatal case of contaminated Meningitis vaccines. Patients who went to their physicians for relief of a back or neck pain where giving the Meningitis vaccine for treatment. These contaminated vaccines spread within 19 states and have made over 650 people ill. A total of 39 deaths occurred from the shot that is injected into over 5 million people in the United States yearly.
The F.D.A. began to investigate to figure out where these vaccines were manufactured from and why were they contaminated. A conclusion that a company in Massachusetts named the New England Compounding Center was the makers of these vaccines. It is believed that areas of the facility might have consisted of mold or bacteria. The company was shut down due to large amount of lawsuits from the victims that where giving poor treatments.
I believe this company violated many healthcare ethics. They not only endangered the health of many patients but where the cause of the death of 39 innocent people. The role of any person under a healthcare profession is to help insure the safety and treatments to a patient. This company has done the exact opposite. They carelessly manufactured vaccines without even a thought of the patients who were going to get treated.
The United States of America is not the only country that has had such a tragic loss due to contaminated vaccines. Countries worldwide have encountered deaths from poor treatment. In fact Egypt has the highest death rate for Meningitis vaccine having 136 deaths. It is highly upsetting that patients seeking treatment trust the professionals with their safety but yet have a possibility of becoming ill or even dyeing from the injection giving from the professional.
Globally there have been 388 deaths due to the manufacturing of vaccines on an unprofessional and unethical level. That is 388 deaths that could have been prevented if at one point these vaccines where double checked to makes sure they were good to treat patients with. Even if they were contaminated in the companies, they were made from, after being shipped to clinics I feel as if the clinics should test each vaccine just to be safe before injecting each patient.
Laws must be made to enforce strict inspections on all companies and facilities that manufacture vaccines or medicines. The facility must be in conditions where there is no mold, bacteria, or anything that can effect and jeopardizes the treatment. Maintenance should be insured at its highest level and the cleanliness of the professionals should as well be on its highest level.
Fatal events such as these cause distrust between a patient and a physician. How can a patient trust you or even want to come to your clinic after hearing news that someone has died from receiving a bad vaccine from your clinic? I for one would seek attention from another physician and clinic. Majority if not all patients would do the same because they feel as if they have a possibility of putting their health in danger. When one goes to a doctor or physician they go for treatment from licensed by the state professional expecting proper healthcare.
The companies that made these contaminated vaccines not only affected patients, their business, but the reputation of those doctors and physicians who received these treatments without knowing the harm they will cause. The reputation of a good physician might no longer exist after injecting a patient with something soon will lead to their death. In reality they are as innocent as the patients who received the treated me because their intentions are to do well and help treat their patient. At no point in time did they wish harm on any of their patients.
The government on the other hand should have acted in a swift manner to ensure that all those involved in the manufacture, research and subsequent distribution of the drugs are arrested. It is not only immoral for them to walk free but also disrespect and a show of disunity with the victim families. In addition to that, the government should enforce strict laws to curtail on such criminal activities and ensure that no more citizens will go through such a horrendous experience.
Meningitis is a disease of the brain caused by a bacterial infection to the meninges part of the brain and also the spinal cord part of the body, which is one of the membranes that are responsible for protecting the brain. Meningitis can be caused by a wide array of factors, which include tumors, chemical irritation, fungi and drug allergies. The main cause in this case was the drug allergies. In the case, the individuals were at first hit by the meningitis and as they were beginning to recover, they suffered a second illness. Instead of the government, having to act there has been widespread blame game on the manufacture, the research farm whereas there are individuals who have already suffered death. The deaths witnessed displayed that the loopholes in the low and the weak legislation that led to the deaths of all those individuals. Part of the blame game was placing the blame on doctors and physicians who administered the drug all over the country. The government was not spared off the blame and was blamed for letting untested and drugs that had not passed the quality benchmark to hit the market. On the other hand, the firm blamed the subcontractor for delivering substandard materials to their facilities, which went on to cause the hugest deaths through a drug outbreak. Most of the victims who had suffered a rare strain of meningitis, which is fungal meningitis were immediately treated but then suffered a second illness that was an epidural abscess near the areas where the drug had been injected. The abscesses is said to have formed while the individuals were taking the strong fungal drugs. Most of the victims are said to have died from a stroke, which came as a side effect.
In this scenario, the blame should have been placed on all the individuals ranging from the subcontractor, the compounder, the government, the .the congress and the state pharmacy board. Each of these bodies failed the United States Citizens by ensuring that they did not ensure that all the citizens are safe. There mandate of each of these bodies should be to uphold the ethical rules that have been stipulated by the principles of bioethics. These should be the guidelines in clinical medicine as well as offer guidelines in ethical medical issues.
The principle of nonmaleficence requires an individual not to commit any harm to any one individual as well as ensure that all the individual take the necessary steps to prevent any harm from happening to any given patient or individual. The State Pharmacy Board should have ensured that this is upheld and that all the compounder is well regulated. There were also underlying issues such as the consideration that a firm is a compounder and thus cannot be well regulated whereas the manufacturers are well controlled. Due care should have been taken to ensure that the disease was prevented and that the ensuing blame game did not take Place.
The Prevention of meningitis is done and handled through vaccination and the use of antibiotics. Thus, most of the individuals needed the vaccination to handle the issues that they had with their health. There is also the use of steroids, which are used to help those individuals who are already suffering the disease to try to improve their hearing abilities as well as help them cope with the pain and the shortcomings of the disease. The drug was in this case used to ensure that those who already suffered diabetes did not suffer adverse effects as a result.
In conclusion, it is only fair that all the individuals who were adversely affected by the outbreak of the meningitis get fair compensation. This may not be in monetary terms but someone should take individual responsibility for the deaths and the harm that has been caused. The individuals who bear the most responsibility are the State Pharmacy Board, the Government and the Firm, as they did not take due care and due influence to ensure that the drug had met the required standards and the required medical standards. The government also needs to crack the whip and ensure that the drugs released in the market are tested and meet certain set benchmarks in accordance with the set criteria by the principles of bioethics. In addition to that, there should be the strict control of the drug market to ensure that such scenarios are not repeated.
References
Dechert, S. (n.d.). The 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak: Whose fault? – Chicago Women’s Health | Examiner.com. Welcome to Examiner.com | Examiner.com. Retrieved March 4, 2013, from http://www.examiner.com/article/the-2012-fungal-meningitis-outbreak-whose-fault
Marcovitz, H. (2009). Meningitis. San Diego: ReferencePoint Press.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/03/health/second-illness-infects-meningitis-sufferers.html. (2012, November 2). Newyork Times, p. 17.
Dechert, S. (n.d.). The 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak: Whose fault? – Chicago Women’s Health | Examiner.com. Welcome to Examiner.com | Examiner.com. Retrieved March 4, 2013, from http://www.examiner.com/article/the-2012-fungal-meningitis-outbreak-whose-fault
Shelburne, C. S. (2008, April 1). Meningitis: distinguishing the benign from the serious: aseptic meningitis has a self-limited course, but bacterial meningitis can be lethal. An expeditious diagnostic approach helps to differentiate between the two Journal of the American Academy of Physicians Assistants , 2, 15.
