Four dead from rare meningitis in US, more cases expected

Nashville, Tennessee: Health officials are expecting to find more cases of a rare and deadly form of meningitis that has sickened more than two dozen people in five states in the US. Four have died.

All received steroid injections, mostly for back pain, a fairly typical treatment.

The type of meningitis involved is not contagious like the more common forms. This type is caused by a fungus often found in leaf mold and which health officials suspect may have been in the steroid.

Eighteen of the cases are in Tennessee, where a Nashville clinic received the largest shipment of the steroid. The drug was made by a specialty pharmacy in Massachusetts that issued a recall last week. Investigators, though, say they're still trying to confirm the source of the infection.