Meningitis Outbreak 2012: Medical Expert Says No End in Sight for Outbreak

The lethal outbreak of fungal meningitis that has killed more than a dozen people and made 214 others sick in 15 states doesn't appear to have an end in sight, according to a top medical expert.

Dr. William Schaffner, author and president of the nonprofit National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, told CBS News on Monday that he is expecting a steady increase in the amount of fungal meningitis cases in the coming weeks, Reuters reports.

"I think we're still in the middle," Schaffner said, commenting on the scope of the outbreak. "We're nowhere near the end of this problem. And we will see more patients reporting in ill and we'll have to treat many more going forward."

Schaffner was particularly concerned about the federal Food and Drug Administration's Monday decision to widen its investigation as to what caused the outbreak to other drugs made by the New England Compounding Center, a Framingham, Mass.-based company that shipped infected steroid injections-used to treat patients with back pains-to 23 states.

"We were concerned that there might be other medications that might be contaminated coming from that pharmacy," said Schaffner, who is past-president of National Foundation for Infectious Disease. "The FDA has given us a heads up that that looks to be the case. We'll have to notify many more patients across the country that they may have been exposed to a fungal infection.

A list of the recalled products from the FDA's web site can be seen here.

According to ABC News affiliate WBAY, the FDA was investigating a report of a possible meningitis infection in a patient that received a different steroid than the one linked to more than 200 meningitis infections in the U.S.

The possible meningitis infection being looked at by the FDA is associated with an epidural injection for back pain of a steroid called triamcinolone acetonide. All the previous steroid-related meningitis cases were linked to methylprednisolone acetate, a similar steroid injectable product.

As of Tuesday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control lists at least 233 known cases and 15 deaths related to the meningitis outbreak.