Hepatitis Cases Linked to M.D.

June 16, 2007

CDC 06/15/07

NEW YORK: " Hepatitis Cases Linked to M.D. "

New York Times (06.15.07)::

New York City's Health Department announced Thursday night that it is

urgently contacting 4,500 patients treated by a Manhattan doctor after

discovering three of them have hepatitis C. Health investigators did not

identify the anesthesiologist who administered anesthesia by needle at ten

Manhattan outpatient centers, but no hospitals, between Dec. 1, 2003, and

May 1, 2007.

Dr. Marcelle Layton, assistant commissioner of the bureau of communicable

diseases, said the three patients found to have the virus received

anesthesia at three different times. " The common risk factor is the doctor,

not the medical procedure, " she said.

Using medical records from the ten treatment sites, the New York City

Department of Health and Mental Hygiene sent letters to the doctor's

patients, urging them to be tested for the virus, whose initial symptoms may

be mild or nonexistent. Officials declined to say whether the doctor has

hepatitis C or where the doctor is, citing confidentiality statutes. Layton

said the anesthesiologist is not practicing, and the three patients are

under medical care.

The Health Department received notice of a patient with hepatitis C in March

2007 and found the patient had received anesthesia from the doctor in

question in August 2006. Two other patients were later found to have been

treated by the same doctor. The patients did not have the typical risk

factor of exposure to infected blood through tainted syringes.

Layton noted that getting hepatitis C through a medical procedure is

" extremely rare " because normal medical techniques involve strict

infection-control measures. " We don't want people to feel that it's unsafe

to get medical procedures that require intravenous anesthesia, " Layton said.

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