The CDC has confirmed the total deaths from the ongoing meningitis outbreak has reached 19. This has put the U.S. Food and Drug Administration under fire since it was aware of violations at the New England Compounding Center, a party of interest in starting the outbreak with tainted steroid medication. Click below to read more.

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The death toll from a meningitis outbreak linked to contaminated steroids jumped to 19 on Wednesday, while U.S. lawmakers pressed federal health regulators to explain what they knew about the pharmacy that produced the drugs.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said four more deaths had been confirmed in the last 24 hours, including two in Tennessee, the state hardest hit with eight deaths since the infections were discovered in late September.

Virginia and Florida each reported one new death.

The number of new cases of fungal meningitis linked to steroid injections from the New England Compounding Center rose by 14 to 245, the CDC said in its latest daily update. Two additional infections have not been confirmed as meningitis.

Reuters