40,000 affected by scandal over needles

Tweet

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/nation/story/E1B2D1392C803CD3862574040013736F?OpenDocument 40,000 affected by scandal over needles By Kathleen Hennessey THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 03/06/2008 LAS VEGAS — Nearly 40,000 people learned this week that a trip to the doctor may have made them sick. In a type of scandal more often associated with Third World countries, a clinic in Las Vegas was found to have been reusing syringes and vials of medication for nearly four years. The shoddy practices may have led to an outbreak of the potentially fatal hepatitis C virus and exposed patients to HIV, too. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/06/MNACVECHH.DTL&type=health Clinic's reused needles may have exposed 40,000 to hepatitis, HIV Kathleen Hennessey, Associated Press Michael Washington was the first to report being infected... (03-06) 04:00 PST Las Vegas -- Nearly 40,000 people learned this week that a trip to the doctor might have made them sick. In a type of scandal more often associated with developing countries, a Las Vegas clinic was found to be reusing syringes and vials of medication for nearly four years. The shoddy practices may have led to an outbreak of the potentially fatal hepatitis C virus and exposed patients to HIV, too. ----------------- Imagine, in this day and age some clinic trying to save some money by reusing old needles. I can't believe this. "Investigators were told the practice was an attempt to cut costs."So, who's culpable here? The people who made the policies or everyone who followed them? Shouldn't medical professionals have known better than to reuse needles like this? I think there is no excuse for the greed or the complacency of the staff.