In February 2008, Nevada state officials warned thousands of patients that they may have been exposed to the hepatitis C virus due to the clinicians using the same syringes for multiple injections. Six patients have been diagnosed with hepatitis C.

About 40,000 patients at the Endoscopy Center of Nevada were injected with anesthesia from March 2004 through January 2008, when the problem was discovered.

Clinicians at the center gave patients multiple shots of certain medications, using the same syringes to dip back into the vials. This allowed for the chance of an infected patients virus to contaminate the medication for others.

“It just didn’t happen one time,” said Brian Labus, senior epidemiologist of the Southern Nevada Health District. “This is the way they did things at the clinic. It’s the way they have always done things.”

Many patients who are exposed to the blood-borne hepatitis C don’t show symptoms for years. This can cause lifelong problems, including long-term liver damage without the patient’s knowledge and early symptoms like jaundice, nausea and fatigue.

Source: Steve Friess, “Thousands are warned of clinic’s dirty syringes,” New York Times, February 28, 2008 (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/28/us/28hepatitis.html?_r=1&oref=slogin).