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Colinism

Colinism

Atlanta, GA
July 2005

MAR 05, 2008 04:58 PM

Long story short a clinic in Las Vegas reused needles and medecine for the past 4 year spotentially infecting 40,000 people with hep c and AIDS.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080305/ap_on_re_us/hepatitis_exposure

SPOILERS! (Click to view)

LAS VEGAS - Nearly 40,000 people learned this week that a trip to the doctor may have made them sick.

In a type of scandal more often associated with Third World countries, a Las Vegas clinic was found to be reusing syringes and vials of medication for nearly four years. The shoddy practices may have led to an outbreak of the potentially fatal hepatitis C virus and exposed patients to HIV, too.

The discovery led to the biggest public health notification operation in U.S. history, brought demands for investigations and caused scores of lawyers to seek out patients at risk for infections.

Thousands of patients are being urged to be tested for the viruses. Six acute cases of hepatitis C have been confirmed. The surgical center and five affiliated clinics have been closed.

"I find it baffling, frankly, that in this day and age anyone would think it was safe to reuse a syringe," said Michael Bell, associate director for infection control at the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

One of the infected patients is retired airplane mechanic Michael Washington, 67, who was the first to report his infection. On the advice of his doctor, he received a routine colon exam in July at the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada.

In September, he started to get sick. He was losing weight fast. His urine turned dark. His stomach hurt. By January, it was clear what had happened.

Washington describes his virus as a "creeping death sentence" and worries that others will hear his story and think twice before getting preventive care they need.

In letters that began arriving this week, patients who received injected anesthesia at the endoscopy center from March 2004 to mid-January were urged to get tested for hepatitis B and C, and HIV.

Because all three viruses are transmitted by blood, they could have been passed from one patient to the next by the unsafe practices at the clinic.

The mass notification is the result of a health district investigation that began in January when officials linked an uptick of unusual hepatitis C cases to the clinic.

Health officials say they are most worried about the spread of hepatitis C, which targets the liver but shows no symptoms in as many as 80 percent of infections.

Hepatitis C results in the swelling of the liver and can cause stomach pain, fatigue and jaundice. It may eventually result in liver failure. Even when no symptoms occur, the virus can slowly cause damage to the liver.

Officials estimate that 4 percent of the patients already had the virus when they entered the clinic, compared with 0.5 percent for hepatitis B and less than 0.5 percent for HIV. Hepatitis C also is easier to transmit than HIV, they said.

"You put the two together and hepatitis C is really our big concern," said Brian Labus, senior epidemiologist at the Southern Nevada Health District.

Health inspectors say they observed clinic staff using the same syringe twice to extract anesthesia from a single-dose vial, which was then used to treat more than one patient. The practice allows contaminated blood in a used syringe to taint the vial and infect the next patient.

Of the six patients so far diagnosed with acute hepatitis C, five received treatment at the clinic on the same day in late September.

Since 1999, the CDC counts 14 hepatitis outbreaks in the U.S. linked to bad injection practices.

The largest outbreak occurred in Fremont, Neb., where 99 cancer patients were infected at an oncology center from 2001 to 2002. At least one died. The doctor involved in the case acknowledged reusing syringes and settled scores of lawsuit. But he never explained why the syringes were reused.

Bell said such improper procedures appear to be more common in outpatient surgical centers like the endoscopy center. Unlike hospitals, such centers often do not have employees whose sole responsibility is to monitor and educate staff on best practices.

In Las Vegas, clinic staff told inspectors they had been ordered by management to reuse the vials and syringes. Labus described the practice as an unwritten, but long-practiced policy.

Investigators were told the practice was an attempt to cut costs, according to a letter of complaint from the city, which revoked the facility's business license Friday. Five other facilities affiliated with the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada also had their licenses revoked.

The clinic's majority owner, Dipak Desai, a political contributor and member of the governor's commission on health care, has refused to comment on the allegations.

He released a statement expressing concern for the patients and assuring the public the problems had been corrected. He later took out a full-page ad in Sunday's edition of the Las Vegas Review-Journal insisting that needles had not been reused and that the chances of contracting an infection at the center in most of the last four years were "extremely low."

Of the thousands of people who have rushed to be tested, many will get positive results, Labus said. More than 15,000 people already have called the health district for information.

But it takes a more sophisticated test, a complete evaluation of risk factors and a clear pattern of infection to determine whether the virus was caught at the facility.

Plenty of lawyers are wading into the mess. Television ads called "health alerts" are soliciting clients. At least a handful of class-action lawsuits have been filed.

On Tuesday, the office of Las Vegas attorney Ed Bernstein was buzzing with phone calls _ nearly 1,000 a day, he said. Bernstein said he represents about 1,200 patients at the facility, eight who have tested positive for hepatitis C.

Washington, the infected airplane mechanic, is one of Bernstein's clients.

His wife, Josephine, a registered nurse, wonders how any health care professional could be so reckless: "To maximize profit? For what? What are you going to save?"

thefreak

thefreak

NEWSWIRE

Gardner, MA

MAR 05, 2008 05:08 PM

You've got to be shitting me.

-TM

Coyotemike

Coyotemike

Kearney, NE
May 2006

MAR 05, 2008 05:09 PM

Heard of this one. Not feeling so bad about not going to the doctor for the past 5 years now.

Roethke

Roethke

SUICIDEGIRL

California, USA

MAR 05, 2008 05:11 PM

Good lord. At first I thought they were sterilizing and reusing needles, which isn't safe anyway, but they weren't even doing that! They were poking different people with the same needle! Ugh, my needle phobia is kicking in.

RedBstrd

RedBstrd

Pomona, CA
April 2004

MAR 05, 2008 05:17 PM

I am very pleased that I never when there when I lived in Las Vegas.

Bastardo

Bastardo

Boston, MA
January 2005

MAR 05, 2008 05:19 PM

Those must've have been the dullest, most painful needles in the history of needles and I have a hard time believing any RN or MD would knowingly do this, orders from management or no.

SockPuppet

SockPuppet

I'm lost
July 2006

MAR 05, 2008 05:19 PM

Grim frown

I suspect nobody will figure the effects of worry on 40000 people's productivity into the Nevada economy.

Profit motive and health care don't mix well, IMHO.

Also, where is the regulatory power?


Health inspectors say they observed clinic staff using the same syringe twice to extract anesthesia from a single-dose vial, which was then used to treat more than one patient.



The inspectors should be able to shut the clinic down on the spot, for something like that.
Hell, they should be obliged to.

Coyotemike

Coyotemike

Kearney, NE
May 2006

MAR 05, 2008 05:22 PM

Just to clarify (from when I first saw this break on TV)

They weren't using the same needles. After each use, they would remove the sharp pointy part and replace it with a new one. What they were reusing was the barrel of the syringe with a fresh needle bit.

It isn't better, but it isn't like they were jabbing one person after another with the same pokey-part. The problem is the lack of oversight in clinics. They don't run on the same rules as hospitals.

Colinism

Colinism

Atlanta, GA
July 2005

MAR 05, 2008 05:36 PM

Crud all my spelling mistakes.... I was doing too many things at once.

sillyokio

sillyokio

Egypt
January 2005

MAR 05, 2008 05:39 PM

I just wanted an excuse to use this picture.

zoom image

Karella_Deville

Karella_Deville

Santa Fe, NM
July 2006

MAR 05, 2008 05:47 PM

wow that is so horrible.
This makes me sick
puke

jermhawk

jermhawk

Tidioute, PA
December 2004

MAR 05, 2008 06:31 PM

I'm still waiting to use "Holy tits Batman, this is no mellon patch"

bald_eagle

bald_eagle

Indianapolis, IN
November 2006

MAR 05, 2008 07:54 PM

Can't talk right now. I'm packing my attache case and heading for Vegas.

FormerlySid

FormerlySid

Providence, RI
June 2007

MAR 05, 2008 07:57 PM

Jeez. I was infected with Hep A under similar circumstances when I was a kid. mad

MrCrisp

MrCrisp

Charleston, SC
August 2004

MAR 05, 2008 07:58 PM

woah

magpieboy

magpieboy

Seattle, WA
June 2004

MAR 05, 2008 10:17 PM

Is this criminal? It should be. This is the kind of thing that is indefensible in this country. I hope these people get jail time for this.

MrStitches

MrStitches

Sag Harbor, NY
November 2003

MAR 06, 2008 12:22 AM

There was another (alleged) case like this on Long Island a couple months ago. I don't think there were nearly as many people involved though.

Ff

Ff

I'm lost
August 2006

MAR 06, 2008 02:22 AM

Sterile, schmerile, think of the money they saved!

frown

PaulNikon

PaulNikon

Melbourne, FL
February 2003

MAR 06, 2008 03:19 AM

I heard of some nurses doing a similar thing to cancer patients in the Midwest recently.

RandomNerd

RandomNerd

Malverne, NY
January 2005

MAR 06, 2008 08:24 PM

Hippocrates is coming for these bastards mad

dangerdrops

dangerdrops

Seattle, WA
January 2008

MAR 06, 2008 09:14 PM

And I was worried about my doctor washing his/her hands. Ha!