NEWS: March 19, 2008

State health officials in Nevada have found evidence of another hepatitis C case related to the first outbreak at the Shadow Lane facility that was closed down last week.

Many weeks after a procedure was performed at the Desert Shadow clinic, the patient’s doctor made a diagnosis of the infection, the health district said. This was not reported to the district, as is required by state law, officials said.

“Had the doctor reported this to us, maybe we would have been able to find it back in 2006 and eliminated any potential for disease transmission,” said Brian Labus, chief epidemiologist for the health district.

After health officials revealed that the six Endoscopy Center patients were infected after medication vials — infected by reused syringes — were used on multiple patients, notices were sent to 40,000 patients urging them to be tested for hepatitis and HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Over the next few days, disease investigators will review Desert Shadow’s patient records to identify individuals who might have been exposed.

For more information on this please visit: http://www.kerrysteigerwalt.com/public/medicalmalpractice/index.htm