UNITED STATES: Lax Needle Use in Clinics Raises Alarm

[Guest guest]

> CDC 02-06-09

>

> UNITED STATES: " Lax Needle Use in Clinics Raises Alarm "

> Wall Street Journal (02.04.09):: Landro

> Next week, CDC, the Safe Injection Practices Coalition, and others will kick

off a campaign aimed at getting more health care workers to follow basic

injection safety guidelines, as well as educating consumers on how they can

protect themselves. The initiative, featuring the slogan " One Needle, One

Syringe, Only One Time, " will be tested in Nevada before being launched

nationwide.

> Medical experts are primarily concerned about unsafe injection practices at

outpatient clinics, where an increasing number of patients are receiving care.

These facilities, which include surgery centers, pain clinics, and dialysis

centers, are not as closely regulated as hospitals. Though hospitals are not

free from risk, they generally train staff in safe-injection guidelines.

> Hepatitis outbreaks in recent years have pointed to lax injection practices at

many US clinics. For example, some 60,000 patients of two Las Vegas endoscopy

clinics were urged to get tested for HIV and hepatitis last year after staff

were found to be reusing syringes and medicine vials; six patients contracted

hepatitis C.

> Previously, outbreaks were viewed as " isolated and unusual incidents, " said

Dr. ph Perz, a CDC injection-safety expert. " This problem is now squarely in

the mainstream, and we have to make sure the basic safe practices are understood

by everyone working in health care. "

> CDC says it is working with regulators and medical groups to emphasize

injection safety as part of the accreditation process for non-hospital

facilities. While most health care workers are aware of the dangers of reusing

needles, other safety guidelines, such as disposing of syringes after each use,

are not always followed.

> " It isn't that health care professionals have malicious intent or a desire to

shortchange the patient, but they just aren't thinking all the steps through and

understanding how they are putting the patient at risk, " said McKnight,

founder of the nonprofit educational group Hepatitis Outbreaks National

Organization for Reform.

> CDC's safe-injection guidelines are available at

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dhqp/injectionSafetyPractices.html.

[Guest guest]

> CDC 02-06-09

>

> UNITED STATES: " Lax Needle Use in Clinics Raises Alarm "

> Wall Street Journal (02.04.09):: Landro

> Next week, CDC, the Safe Injection Practices Coalition, and others will kick

off a campaign aimed at getting more health care workers to follow basic

injection safety guidelines, as well as educating consumers on how they can

protect themselves. The initiative, featuring the slogan " One Needle, One

Syringe, Only One Time, " will be tested in Nevada before being launched

nationwide.

> Medical experts are primarily concerned about unsafe injection practices at

outpatient clinics, where an increasing number of patients are receiving care.

These facilities, which include surgery centers, pain clinics, and dialysis

centers, are not as closely regulated as hospitals. Though hospitals are not

free from risk, they generally train staff in safe-injection guidelines.

> Hepatitis outbreaks in recent years have pointed to lax injection practices at

many US clinics. For example, some 60,000 patients of two Las Vegas endoscopy

clinics were urged to get tested for HIV and hepatitis last year after staff

were found to be reusing syringes and medicine vials; six patients contracted

hepatitis C.

> Previously, outbreaks were viewed as " isolated and unusual incidents, " said

Dr. ph Perz, a CDC injection-safety expert. " This problem is now squarely in

the mainstream, and we have to make sure the basic safe practices are understood

by everyone working in health care. "

> CDC says it is working with regulators and medical groups to emphasize

injection safety as part of the accreditation process for non-hospital

facilities. While most health care workers are aware of the dangers of reusing

needles, other safety guidelines, such as disposing of syringes after each use,

are not always followed.

> " It isn't that health care professionals have malicious intent or a desire to

shortchange the patient, but they just aren't thinking all the steps through and

understanding how they are putting the patient at risk, " said McKnight,

founder of the nonprofit educational group Hepatitis Outbreaks National

Organization for Reform.

> CDC's safe-injection guidelines are available at

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dhqp/injectionSafetyPractices.html.