Congress To Hold Meningitis Hearing

Next week the U.S. House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations will hear from health officials about the deadly meningitis outbreak. Congressman Fred Upton, who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee, says the hearing will be Wednesday, November 14th. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Margaret Hamburg is scheduled to testify, along with the Director of the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Pharmacy James Coffey and Director of Pharmacy and owner of the New England Compounding Center Barry Cadden. Cogressman Upton and the committee which began its bipartisan investigation last month are continuing to look into what went wrong at the NECC and are planning on what actions can made to prevent such an outbreak from happening again. The Centers for Disease Control says this form of meningitis is not contagious.