VA hospital may have infected 1,800 veterans with HIV

[Foxrac]

(CNN) -- A Missouri VA hospital is under fire because it may have exposed more than 1,800 veterans to life-threatening diseases such as hepatitis and HIV.

John Cochran VA Medical Center in St. Louis has recently mailed letters to 1,812 veterans telling them they could contract hepatitis B, hepatitis C and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) after visiting the medical center for dental work, said Rep. Russ Carnahan.

Carnahan said Tuesday he is calling for a investigation into the issue and has sent a letter to President Obama about it.

"This is absolutely unacceptable," said Carnahan, a Democrat from Missouri. "No veteran who has served and risked their life for this great nation should have to worry about their personal safety when receiving much needed healthcare services from a Veterans Administration hospital."

The issue stems from a failure to clean dental instruments properly, the hospital told CNN affiliate KSDK.

KSDK: VA dental patients at risk of infection

Dr. Gina Michael, the association chief of staff at the hospital, told the affiliate that some dental technicians broke protocol by handwashing tools before putting them in cleaning machines.

The instruments were supposed to only be put in the cleaning machines, Michael said.

The handwashing started in February 2009 and went on until March of this year, the hospital told KSDK.

The hospital has set up a special clinic and education centers to help patients who may have been infected. However, Carnahan said he feels more should be done and those responsible should be disciplined.

"I can only imagine the horror and anger our veterans must be feeling after receiving this letter," Carnahan said. "They have every right to be angry. So am I."

This is not the first time this year a hospital has been in hot water for not following proper procedures.

In June, Palomar Hospital in San Diego, California, has sent certified letters to 3,400 patients who underwent colonoscopy and other similar procedures, informing the patients that there may be a potential of infection from items used and reused in the procedures.

VA hospital may have infected 1,800 veterans with HIV - CNN.com

 

[netrox]

That is a bad title. It is extremely unlikely that any of them are infected with HIV; HIV just don't survive well outside the host. Soap and hot water quickly inactivate HIV and since that's what they did, it's unlikely HIV survived through that routine.

The odds of getting hepatitis C is quite good though since they can survive for a long time without the host and can withstand washing more than HIV could.

Read this: "The rate of occupational transmission from an HIV-positive source is believed to be 0.3% for a percutaneous exposure and 0.09% for a mucous membrane exposure. The rate of transmission from a hepatitis B-positive source to a nonimmunized host is 6-24% and 1-10% for exposure to hepatitis C."

Needle-stick Guideline: eMedicine Emergency Medicine

In other words, the odds of getting hepatitis C is 100 times more than getting HIV from infected needles.

Assuming that they used infected tools with both diseases, I'd say that only 1 or 2 would be infected with HIV but more than 100 would be infected with hepatitis.

It's incredibly stupid of them not to put them in cleaning machines.. what were they thinking?!?!

 

[rockin'robin]

VA Hospitals don't give a shyt!...They don't care about our veterans...Ask any veteran whose been treated at a VA hospital....and I've seen many veterans thumbing for a ride to the VA hospital, very sick, with no way to get there but to thumb....our Country should be ashamed, ashamed and ashamed for the treatment given to veterans.

I personally know of one veteran of the Vietnam War...he had head trauma and PST....the VA hospital just prescribed him pills after pills after pills....all in different colors of the rainbow!...He had a wheelbarrow full of them, refusing to take them. Eventually, he went loco...and in a in nursing home, still being pumped with pills, still writing letters to the President (still thinking the President is Bush), talking about the war and being called a "baby killer"....Very sad situation....