The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has created an on-line hepatitis risk assessment to help people determine whether they should be tested. The “5 minute Hepatitis Risk Assessment” is part of the CDC’s effort to get people tested, particularly…
Due to issues in both diagnostics and surveillance, many hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections are going undiagnosed and untreated, with some progressing to mortality at a surprisingly young age, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports. “New infections continue…
The index case of hepatitis C virus (HCV) that triggered a massive testing effort of patients in a Tulsa, OK dental practice rife with infection control failings appears to be the first documented case of HCV infection via cross-transmission between…
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently recommended that millions of Baby Boomers born from 1945 to 1965 get tested for hepatitis C virus so they can take advantage of new treatment options and reduce transmission of the leading…
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is scaling back its oversight of needle safety issues in ambulatory care and surgical settings (ASCs), though noting that some 3,200 inspections done in fiscal years 2010 and 2011 “have found that…
A former lab technician faces charges in connection with a hepatitis C outbreak that may have infected some 30 patients at Exeter Hospital in New Hampshire, according to press reports. David Michael Kwiatkowski, 32, is charged with obtaining controlled substances…
In a painfully familiar scenario, 20 patients have tested positive for the same strain of hepatitis C virus in what appears to be a case of blatant disregard for infection control with needles, syringes and vials by a drug-addicted…
Once thought of as shocking outliers, hepatitis outbreaks in ambulatory care settings related to failure of basic needle safety have become the numbing new normal. A recurrent theme in the outbreaks has been patient-to-patient transmission due to failure of health…
The `silent epidemic’ is about to get rocked, as public health officials are on the verge of recommending that millions of Americans get a one-time test for hepatitis C virus regardless of risk factors. Calling HCV “an unrecognized health crisis,”…
The infamous 2008 hepatitis C virus (HCV) outbreak in a Las Vegas endoscopy clinic was caused primarily by health care workers using blatantly unsafe needle practices that included the reuse of single-dose vials on multiple patients, according to an investigation…