NJ Linked to Meningitis Outbreak?

New Jersey health officials have identified six facilities in the state which they say received the steroid medication being investigated in a fungal meningitis outbreak that has claimed four lives in other states.

Officials say patients who may have received injections of the steroid are being contacted by the facilities, either outpatient pain centers or doctors' offices. No cases of the rare fungal meningitis have yet been reported in New Jersey.

The injectable steroid at the center of the investigation is used mostly for back pain. It was made by a specialty pharmacy in Massachusetts that issued a recall last week. New Jersey officials have told facilities to halt any use of the drug.

So far 26 cases of the illness have been reported in five states, Tennessee, Virginia, Maryland, Florida and North Carolina.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)