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…
Hundreds of former patients of oral surgeon W. Scott Harrington, DDS, lined to be tested for hepatitis and HIV in Tulsa, OK this weekend as public health investigators continue to investigate infection control lapses in his practice. Health officials said Thursday that…
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…
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…
In language clear enough to any plaintiff’s attorney, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released a new guidance document for outpatient settings emphasizing that clinic administrators “must ensure that sufficient fiscal and human resources are available to develop…