DOVER, Del.- The meningitis outbreak is affecting many pain management centers and doctors' offices across Delmarva.
At Compassionate Pain Management in Dover, Dr. Eva Dickinson is able to make her patients feel a lot of better with the injection of a needle. However, she said the recent meningitis outbreak is scaring people away.
"They don't show or they'll call and say, 'I don't want to come, that meningitis scares me too much.' and you try to reassure them and they say, 'I know, but I'm still too scared to come in'," Dickinson said.
Dickinson has never dealt with the Massachusetts company being investigated and she takes extra steps to make sure her medicine is safe.
"Once I get the medications, I actually have them undergo UV sterilization," she said. "We have a UV light that actually sterilizes all of the medications when they come in."
But that is not enough for some. The parking lot at Compassionate Pain Management is half-empty because of the scare. Dickinson said many of her appointments are being canceled and it's starting to affect her business.
"When patients don't show up, all of my staff is here and I'm ready and there's nobody here to take care of," she said. "People still have to get paid."
Tameka Russell gets injections for back pain. She said the people not coming in for their appointments are only hurting themselves.
"I need the injections. I have to have the injections," she said. "Nothing works if, the injections, I can't get those."
Dickinson said if more doctors used UV sterilization, then the meningitis outbreak could have been minimized.
