"Exeter Hospital cited in hepatitis outbreak; Safety violations prompt a plan of correction" by Chelsea Conaboy | Globe Staff, August 10, 2012
Government investigators have cited a New Hampshire hospital for violations in infection control that may have contributed to an outbreak of hepatitis C, including leaving powerful anesthesia drugs unattended in its cardiac catheterization lab.
Exeter Hospital also allowed a medical technician, identified as accused “serial infector” David Kwiatkowski, to work with open wounds.
The citations prompted hospital executives to write a policy requiring staff members to report contagious conditions such as hepatitis C, and to pledge to better secure potent anesthetics, which health care workers sometimes steal to feed drug habits. Exeter’s plan of correction was filed Thursday and released by the US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services along with a statement of deficiencies issued in July.
Working with federal authorities, state health regulators began investigating the facility in June, after the hospital reported a hepatitis C outbreak among patients treated in the heart center. Last month, law enforcement officials arrested Kwiatkowski, who is accused of stealing syringes filled with the drug fentanyl and replacing them with dirty ones that were used on patients.
Kwiatkowski has been infected with hepatitis since at least 2010....
Kwiatkowski was a traveling worker, assigned to Exeter Hospital in April 2011 by a staffing agency and then hired as a full-time employee in October. His arrest has prompted a far-reaching investigation because he had worked at facilities across the country. Officials in at least eight states and at some 17 hospitals have said they are investigating whether Kwiatkowski could have exposed patients to the virus, which can cause serious liver damage over time. His training and certification authorized him to work primarily as an X-ray technician, a position common in cardiac labs....
A manager of the lab told inspectors that a technician who worked at the hospital between April 2011 and May 16, 2012 — identified by Martin as Kwiatkowski — came to work with open wounds, including lesions and a finger cut that required stitches. He was repeatedly asked to leave the work area, at least once during a procedure, because the wounds were weeping or he had blood-like stains on his scrubs, the report said....
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Related: Linking Green to Granite
Yup, everything okay now.
But go get tested says the CDC:
"CDC encourages baby boomers get tested for hepatitis C" by Mike Stobbe | Associated Press, August 17, 2012
ATLANTA — All baby boomers should get a one-time blood test to learn if they have the liver-destroying hepatitis C virus, US health officials said Thursday.
It can take decades for the blood-borne virus to cause liver damage and symptoms to emerge, so many people don’t know they’re harboring it. Baby boomers account for about two-thirds of the estimated 3.2 million infected Americans.
More than 15,000 Americans each year die from hepatitis C-related illnesses, and the number has been growing, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
‘‘Unless we take action, we project deaths will increase substantially,’’ said CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden, in a call with reporters.
Yeah, whatever. I'm sick of puke authorities want to poke and prod me or fill me with pills.
Hepatitis C virus is most commonly spread today through sharing needles to injecting drugs. Before screening of blood donations began in 1992, it was also spread through blood transfusions.
The virus can gradually scar the liver and lead to cirrhosis or liver cancer, and is the leading cause of liver transplant. It can trigger damage in other parts of the body, as well.
It is possible some people were infected in ways other than dirty needles or long-ago blood transfusions. Some specialists say tattoos, piercings, shared razor blades and toothbrushes, manicures, and sniffed cocaine may have caused the virus to spread in some cases.
Or it could be some drug addicted attendant in the hospital (sigh).
However it happened, health officials say baby boomers are five times more likely to be infected than other adults.
Yeah, however it happened. It's not important when an agenda is being pushed.
Officials said they decided to issue the recommendations after seeing the number of Americans dying from hepatitis C-related diseases nearly double from 1999 to 2007.
Another reason: Two drugs hit the market last year that promise to cure many more people than was previously possible....
Do you know how $ick I am of typing government works for pharmaceuticals?
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