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COLUMBIA (WACH) - The Department of Health and Environmental Control reported the first case of fungal meningitis in South Carolina Thursday.

Authorities say this is the first probable case of fungal meningitis in a state resident associated with the multistate outbreak that has caused 317 cases of fungal meningitis and 24 deaths to date.

“The patient is being treated with antifungal medications based on treatment guidelines recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,” said Dr. Linda Bell, M.D. and Interim State Epidemiologist. “Fungal meningitis poses no additional risk to others, as it is not transmitted from person to person.”

Bell says the New England Compounding Company in Framingham, Massachusetts, prepared the three lots of steroid injection implicated in the investigation. Nearly 14,000 persons in 23 states were exposed to the potentially contaminated steroid injection between May 21 and September 26, 2012.

 DHEC has been working with healthcare providers to raise awareness about patients who have symptoms that suggest possible fungal infection. All local area patients who received spinal/epidural injections from NECC have been notified and are aware of the need to contact their healthcare provider immediately if symptoms of meningitis or stroke occur. Symptoms include fever, headache, stiff neck, nausea, vomiting, sensitivity to light, altered mental status and difficulty walking, speaking or moving.

Most local patients that received other injectable products at other body sites from NECC have also been notified. Symptoms of infections may include fever, swelling, increasing pain, redness, warmth at injection site, visual changes, pain, redness or discharge from the eye, chest pain or drainage from the surgical site.