North Carolina's health director says a third person is hospitalized for fungal meningitis apparently contracted from a tainted steroid injection.

State Health Director Laura Gerald said Wednesday that the unidentified patient was being monitored after having received a spinal steroid injection with one of the contaminated lots produced by the New England Compounding Center in Framingham, Mass.

The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services says 313 people have received a steroid injection with the tainted drugs. The department says two people are being treated for fungal meningitis.

A 77-year-old Denton woman died on Oct. 19 from an injection she received in late August.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports 377 people in 19 states have been stricken with meningitis, and there have been 29 deaths.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)