N.H. Hospital Facing Legal Action Over Hepatitis C Outbreak

[jade3000]

Source: ABC World News

New Hampshire's Exeter Hospital faces dozens of lawsuits over an outbreak of hepatitis C that has been linked to its cardiac catheterization lab.

The New Hampshire Department of Health announced Monday that, so far, 27 people had contracted the disease while in the cardiac catheterization lab. Of the 27 cases, one was a hospital employee. An additional 12 people tested positive for the hepatitis C virus but had a strain different from the one tied to the outbreak.

...

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 13 health care-associated hepatitis C outbreaks between 2008 and 2011. More than 100 people were infected during those outbreaks. Two of the outbreaks -- one in 2009 in Colorado and another in 2010 in Florida -- involved drug diversion by health care staff.

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/hampshires-exeter-hospital-sued-hepatitis-outbreak/story?id=16718336

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This is scary. I can't imagine the emotional pain these people are going through. And it's happening around the country.

[Warpy]

1. Crimony!

I knew before I read it that it had to be a multidose drug vial that somebody, probably the anesthetist, was dipping into. They should be able to match the strain to staff members and anybody who didn't report a needle stick is going to be hung out to dry.

This is another reason they need to end the damn drug war.

[tru]

2. why is the syringe being reused?

does the hospital count syringes? If it weren't reused there'd be no contamination, right?

When I had a cat who needed insulin shots, some pharmacies didn't bat an eyelid about my buying syringes. (And one was run by an *ssh*l* who kept me there until it was too late to buy them elsewhere, so my cat went without an injection. He finally reached the vet and got an okay at five minutes before closing and then found he didn't even have them in stock.)

[Warpy]

3. What happens is this

The addict withdraws a small amount into a syringe s/he keeps in his or her pocket, reusing that syringe every time and shooting up with it during bathroom breaks. That's the contaminated syringe and it infects every vial it accesses.

Addicts don't use proper procedures for their own works. They don't give a shit about anybody else as long as they get their drugs and they always assume they're perfectly healthy, to boot.

That's probably what happened in this case. On the floors, they sign out narcotics the patient never gets.

Note that these people are doing their jobs just fine. They only get caught when someone questions why Mr. So and So needed narcotics every three hours on the addict's shift but only twice during the 12 hour shifts before and after it and notice that pattern on all the addict's patients.

If they could get their own drugs at a Walgreen's, they wouldn't have to divert hospital narcotics and put patients at risk.