Las Vegas Clinic May Have Infected Many with Hepatitis C, HIV

[Guest guest]

this is pure B.S. Dipak Desai should be in jail charged with attempted murder. how callous can you get?

 

--Makeda "No matter how long a log stays in the water, it doesn't become a crocodile"

 

-------------- Original message -------------- "Dominique" <jetsetteratl1996

 

As the article below states, a Las Vegas clinic was recently shutdown after authorities learned that the clinic had a policy ofreusing dirty needles on patients. As a result, more than 40,000patients may have been exposed to Hepatitis and HIV. What's evenmore alarming is that the clinic's owner, Dipak Desai, own's severalother clinics, and is free to return to his native India beforeauthorities can get down to the bottom of the scandal. More detailsare outlined below in the attached article:*************************************Clinic's reused needles may have exposed 40,000 to hepatitis, HIVKathleen Hennessey, Associated PressThursday, March 6, 2008(03-06) 04:00 PST Las Vegas --Nearly 40,000 people learned this week that a trip to the doctormight have made them sick.In a type of scandal more often associated with developing countries,a Las Vegas clinic was found to be reusing s

yringes and vials ofmedication for nearly four years. The shoddy practices may have ledto an outbreak of the potentially fatal hepatitis C virus and exposedpatients to HIV, too.The discovery led to the biggest public health notification operationin U.S. history, brought demands for investigations and caused scoresof lawyers to seek out patients at risk for infections.Thousands of patients are being urged to be tested for the viruses.Six acute cases of hepatitis C have been confirmed. The surgicalcenter and five affiliated clinics have been closed."I find it baffling, frankly, that in this day and age, anyone wouldthink it was safe to reuse a syringe," said Michael Bell, associatedirector for infection control at the national Centers for DiseaseControl and Prevention.One of the infected patients is retired airplane mechanic MichaelWashington, 67, who was the first to report his infection. On theadvice of

his doctor, he received a routine colon exam in July at theEndoscopy Center of Southern Nevada.In September, he started to get sick. He was losing weight fast. Hisurine turned dark. His stomach hurt. By January, it was clear whathad happened.Washington describes his virus as a "creeping death sentence" andworries that others will hear his story and think twice beforegetting the preventive care they need.In letters that began arriving this week, patients who receivedinjected anesthesia at the endoscopy center from March 2004 to mid-January were urged to get tested for hepatitis B and C, and HIV.Because all three viruses are transmitted by blood, they could havebeen passed from one patient to the next by the unsafe practices atthe clinic.The mass notification is the result of a health districtinvestigation that began in January when officials linked an uptickof unusual hepatitis C cases to the clinic

..Health officials say they are most worried about the spread ofhepatitis C, which targets the liver but shows no symptoms in as manyas 80 percent of infections.Hepatitis C results in the swelling of the liver and can causestomach pain, fatigue and jaundice. It may eventually result in liverfailure. Even when no symptoms occur, the virus can slowly causedamage to the liver.Officials estimate that 4 percent of the patients already had thevirus when they entered the clinic, compared with 0.5 percent forhepatitis B and less than 0.5 percent for HIV. Hepatitis C also iseasier to transmit than HIV, they said."You put the two together, and hepatitis C is really our bigconcern," said Brian Labus, senior epidemiologist at the SouthernNevada Health District.Health inspectors say they observed clinic staff using the samesyringe twice to extract anesthesia from a single-dose vial, whichwas then used to trea

t more than one patient. The practice allowscontaminated blood in a used syringe to taint the vial and infect thenext patient.Of the six patients so far diagnosed with acute hepatitis C, fivereceived treatment at the clinic on the same day in late September.Since 1999, the CDC counts 14 hepatitis outbreaks in the UnitedStates linked to bad injection practices.The largest outbreak occurred in Fremont, Neb., where 99 cancerpatients were infected at an oncology center from 2001 to 2002. Atleast one died. The doctor involved in the case acknowledged reusingsyringes and settled scores of lawsuit. But he never explained whythe syringes were reused.Bell said such improper procedures appear to be more common inoutpatient surgical centers like the endoscopy center. Unlikehospitals, such centers often do not have employees whose soleresponsibility is to monitor and educate staff on best practices.In Las Vegas

, clinic staff told inspectors they had been ordered bymanagement to reuse the vials and syringes. Labus described thepractice as an unwritten but long-practiced policy.Investigators were told the practice was an attempt to cut costs,according to a letter of complaint from the city, which revoked thefacility's business license Friday. Five other facilities affiliatedwith the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada also had their licensesrevoked.The clinic's majority owner, Dipak Desai, a political contributor andmember of the governor's commission on health care, has refused tocomment on the allegations.He released a statement expressing concern for the patients andassuring the public the problems had been corrected. He later tookout a full-page ad in Sunday's edition of the Las Vegas Review-Journal insisting that needles had not been reused and that thechances of contracting an infection at the center in most of t

he lastfour years were "extremely low."http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/06/MNACVECHH.DTL