question for oklahomans

[treasurymae]

My question is i heard that Norman hospital had been or is being sued for a nurse using the same needle on several patients and those patients now have hepatitis B.


Have u heard of this ? Any informations would be helpful. You see as u all know my sister has had alot of problems during her pregnancy. Well she has been going to norman hospital. Her blood test came back with signs of hepatitis B in it. She has never had this. Her dr ran another test yesterday just to dbl check. I pray that it was just a mistake. But if its not then the only way we can think she got it is from Norman Hospital. She dosent leave my mothers house except to go to dr or when shes admitted to hospital, and before this pregnancy she did not have it. Shes been with the same man for several years. So i think he can be excluded as a cause.

I"m just so worried. Any information would be appreciated.

[Katt]

Yep, it was a male nurse, and last year, or the year before. I can't remember exactly. I'll see if I can find an article on it.

[Katt]

It was hep C, not B.

Here's an article on it that I found online: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/767960/posts

[Katt]

Reuse of Needle at Hospital Infects 50 With Hepatitis C

By BARRY MEIER
The New York Times

[Those who oppose clean needle programs should consider what just one nurse using one needle and one syringe produced, and consider what hundred addicts with dirty needles could cause.]

More than 50 people at an Oklahoma hospital have been infected with hepatitis C after a nurse repeatedly used the same needle and syringe to give drugs, area health officials say.

Officials of the hospital, Norman Regional Hospital in Norman, have contacted hundreds of patients treated since 1999 at the hospital clinic where the nurse worked and have urged them to be tested for blood-borne diseases.

"By my understanding, this is the biggest outbreak of hepatitis C that has taken place as a result of transmission within a health care facility," Dr. Michael Crutcher, state epidemiologist at the Oklahoma Department of Health, said yesterday.

More than four million people in the United States are infected with hepatitis C, and experts say the virus is frequently transmitted when an infected drug addict shares a hypodermic needle with an uninfected person. Hepatitis C is the most virulent form of the hepatitis virus and can lead in a small percentage of cases to serious liver damage and liver cancer.

[treasurymae]

thank you


so much