About 40 people in Texas and Illinois are suffering from blood infections after reportedly using heparin-filled syringes produced by Angier, North Carolina based Sierra Pre-Filled. 20 of the 40 infected are outpatients at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.

The affected group of syringes is labeled 070926H. The syringes are contaminated with the bacterium Serratia marcescens, which may be causing fever and chills in infected patients. According to Dr. Arjun Srinivasan at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), no one has died from the infections.

?We?ll be working to perform genetic fingerprinting on the bacteria to confirm a link between bacteria in the syringes and the case patients,? he said. ?Our highest priority is to ensure that all of those cases that occur are identified.?

According to Dushyant Patel, president of Sierra Pre-Filled, the company is working with the CDC and FDA to make sure none of the tainted syringes remain in the stream of commerce.

?There?s nothing out there anymore,? said Patel.

Source: Lindsey Tanner, ?Bacteria-Tainted Syringes Sicken Dozens,? Associated Press, December 18, 2007.