VA finds three positive HIV tests in endoscopy inquiry

Apr 20, 2009

Three patients exposed to contaminated endoscopy equipment at hospitals run by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) have tested positive for HIV in initial tests, the agency reported on Friday.

More than 10,000 patients are being tested following colonoscopy exams using equipment that wasn't properly sterilized, exposing the patients to other people's body fluids.

Following the discovery of inadequate sterilization procedures last December at a VA clinic in Murfreesboro, TN, all VA facilities were required to review their processes to ensure compliance with equipment manufacturer's instructions. "Significant" reprocessing issues were found at three VA centers, which began notifying and testing patients who were potentially exposed to serious disease. The faulty procedures were in place for as long as five years.

The following tables detail the testing efforts and preliminary results as of April 17:

Numbers of potentially affected patients

Number of patients	Murfreesboro	Augusta	Miami	Total
Potentially affected (risk pool)	6,387	1,069	3,341	10,797
Notified	6,314	1,069	3,184	10,567
Responded to disclosure or called¹	7,145	988	2,038	10,171
Declined testing or appointment	352	13	103	468
Notified of test results	3,114	671	1,639	5,424
Tested with results²	5,710	738³	1,880	8,328
Total calls to toll-free hotline	7,145	487	6,462	14,094

¹VA continues notification procedures.
²Unable to determine exact number of patients tested, as some may have gone to another center or outside the VA system.
³Some results are preliminary and some are final.
Source: U.S. Veteran's Administration

Sites with unverified positive tests

Test	Murfreesboro	Augusta	Miami	Total
Hepatitis B virus	5	1	0	6
Hepatitis C virus	7	5	7	19
HIV	1	1	1	3

Source: U.S. Veteran's Administration

The agency emphasizes that it has no way of knowing if any of the detected exposures to HIV, hepatitis A, and hepatitis B resulted from the faulty sterilization procedures.

Patients who believe they may have been exposed are urged to contact the VA's special care call center at 877-575-7256 (available 24 hours a day, seven days a week) or via e-mail at [email protected].

Dirty colonoscopes spark inquiry at VA hospitals, March 26, 2009