HIV Scare not Over for Miami-Area Vets

[unhappycamper]

HIV Scare not Over for Miami-Area Vets
July 07, 2010
Military.com|by Bryant Jordan

The Veterans Administration is looking into why 79 of more than 2,400 patients who may have been exposed to HIV- or hepatitis-tainted equipment at the Miami VA hospital were not notified. The director of the Miami VA Healthcare System, Mary Berrocal, has been reassigned during an investigation into the oversight. Officials say the probe could take up to 60 days.

"It is inexcusable these notifications didn't go out," the VA's acting principal deputy undersecretary of health Dr. Robert Jesse told reporters in a July 6 conference call from Miami.

VA officials are now attempting to contact the 79 potentially at-risk vets by phone and mail to ensure they get the information they need. The patients will be told to come in for additional testing and will be provided counseling and medical care if they test positive for the viruses, officials said.

According to a report in The Miami Herald, three Miami area vets among the group brought in for testing last year did test positive for HIV. Similar equipment-cleaning problems resulted in warnings and additional testing for more than 10,000 other veterans who were treated at VA hospitals in Murfreesboro, Tenn., and Augusta, Ga., the Herald reported. In all, a total of five vets tested positive for HIV, 25 for hepatitis C, and eight for hepatitis B, the paper said.

The VA says there is no way to know if the patients were contaminated because of exposure to its equipment or if the exposure occurred afterwards. In the Miami case, officials determined that the 2,400 veteran patients could have been exposed to tainted endoscopic equipment anytime between May 2004 and March 2009. Officials said the equipment had not been sanitized in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions.