Largest Disease Exposure Notification Initiated in Nevada

Forty thousand Nevadans soon will receive word that they might have been exposed to HIV and hepatitis strains B and C in what a federal health official called the largest notification of its kind in U.S. history.  The notification does not arise out of a concern that these individuals have been exposed to these diseases through sexual contact.  Rather, these people were exposed to these diseases while undergoing procedures at  Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada.  In fact, 40,000 people are expected to be notified by health officials.
At a recent news conference attended by health officials and doctors from the facility, officials said six people diagnosed with acute hepatitis C in recent months received treatment at the center near Valley Hospital Medical Center after being patients at the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada clinic. These individuals are believed to have been exposed to the disease when anesthesiologists reused syringes to administer medications at the clinic.
All patients who have undergone procedures at the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada clinic are being advised that they should use condoms when engaging in sexual activity.  They have been advised to use condoms until such time as they have been tested and told that they have not contracted any one of the diseases mentioned previously in this article.  Health officials began investigating the endoscopy center in early January after learning of three people who had been diagnosed with hepatitis C, a chronic, potentially lethal blood-borne virus that can cause liver cancer and liver failure.
Health care officials have made it perfectly clear that it is important for these individuals to use condoms in the interim to make sure that their partners are not exposed to the prospect of contracting these diseases.  Condoms provide the best line of defense against the spread of these diseases in these circumstances.
According to health care professionals and disease control experts, the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada is a high-volume gastrointestinal practice where colonoscopies are frequently performed. Reuse of syringes and vials at the facility was a “common practice” undertaken by everyone from doctors to technicians, health officials said.  The business was investigated for other unsafe practices such as not properly cleaning endoscopic equipment used in colonoscopies and upper gastrointestinal procedures.
“Las Vegas has the dubious distinction of having the largest patient notification of its kind, one involving the reuse of syringes and consequent spread of disease,” said Joseph Perz.  Prez is an epidemiologist with the federal Centers of Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and has been involved in the Nevada investigations and notifications.  Perz said, he was stunned by the magnitude of what happened in Las Vegas.  “It certainly is unsettling to think of the scope of this,” Perz said. “Let’s not forget the impact on people when they receive the notification letter.  A lot of people are going to lose sleep.”  He also emphasized the importance of safe sex practices using condoms during this investigation and testing of the patients involved.