14 patients infected with hepatitis by used needles

[Guest guest]

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20080522TDY02311.htm

14 patients infected with hepatitis by used needles

The Yomiuri Shimbun

MATSUE--Fourteen patients have been confirmed infected with hepatitis B or C

after a clinic in Masuda, Shimane Prefecture, took blood samples from 37

patients with instruments equipped with used needles since the end of March, the

Shimane prefectural government said.

Nurses at the Ochi Heart Clinic believed the needles would be replaced

automatically, the prefectural government said.

Based on a Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry guideline prohibiting the reuse of

similar instruments, the prefectural government instructed the clinic not to use

the instruments with used needles.

The instrument, Multiclix, is sold by Roche Diagnostics, the Tokyo office of the

German manufacturer of the product.

The penlike instrument is used by diabetics to check glucose levels. Users

rotate a drum containing six needles for each injection.

The instrument comes with a sticker warning users not to share the instrument

with other patients.

The clinic had used a different blood collection instrument until March.

However, the clinic began using Multiclix on March 28 because the other

instrument had malfunctioned. Employees at the clinic's departments of internal

medicine, cardiovascular disease and psychosomatic medicine reportedly

misunderstood how to use the instrument and collected blood from the patients

with used needles for about a month.

(May. 22, 2008)

_________________________________________________________________

Keep your kids safer online with Windows Live Family Safety.

http://www.windowslive.com/family_safety/overview.html?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_Refresh\

_family_safety_052008