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A company which manufactures prefilled syringes is facing legal action from five people in the US who claim the products were contaminated with bacteria.
The news comes after doctors traced several cases of infection back in December to syringes filled with heparin, which is used during home-based treatment for cancer and other diseases.
Around 40 people in Illinois and Texas became sick, including 20 outpatients from Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.
A lawsuit has now been filed against syringe producer and distributor Sierra Pre-Filled of Angier, North Carolina, by plaintiffs Richard Farr, Tony Johnson, Jeffrey Marlin, Patricia Masterson, and Milda Praninskas.
They were all admitted to Rush during the outbreak, and the shortest length of stay was five days, while the longest was nine days.
Dushyant Patel, president of Sierra Pre-Filled, said he is not aware of the lawsuits and could not comment.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the company recalled all batches of the heparin and saline syringes on January 18 after the bacteria Serratia marcescens was found in them.
The regulator added that consumers who have the recalled syringes should stop using them immediately.
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