How the Hepatitis Injection Scare Affects You

You may have heard about the endoscopy clinic in Las Vegas that exposed up to 40,000 people to Hepatitis-C. They reused syringes used for injections of the anesthesia that helped people sleep through their colonoscopies.

And you're probably thinking, "That doesn't affect me because I don't live near Las Vegas, or because I didn't have a colonoscopy at that clinic."

And if that's what you're thinking -- you're wrong. And it creates an opportunity for us to learn one more simple step in patient empowerment.

In fact, this is the second time in less than three months we've learned about exposures of huge numbers of people who were the victims of presumably "safe" injections that were not being done in a safe way. Last November, Dr. Harvey Finkelstein, a doctor on Long Island, was discovered to have done the same thing -- reusing needles and syringes, exposing hundreds of patients to HIV, hepatitis and any other infections those patients may now share.

How that sharing puts people at risk is actually fairly simple. When the needle is injected into someone's body, then pulled out, it may have some of the infection attached to it. That infection will live long enough to be injected into the next person -- or -- it may travel from the needle back into the syringe. If the syringe gets reused for another person, then any subsequent people it is used on may be infected.

Do you know how safe your last injection was? Do you know for sure that the needle used on you was sterile -- then disposed of after use on you? Do you know for sure that the syringe that was used for you had never been used for anyone else?

It seems that this is one more thing we patients need to attend to -- the sterility of injections or any other instrument that may be used during our medical care.

If you need an injection -- whether it be a flu shot, an allergy shot, or any other -- talk to the person who will give it to you and tell them you want to be sure the needle and syringe are sterile, and have never been used on anyone but you.

And if they can't guarantee that? Then make a fuss until you are confident your shot will be safe. Further, since that doctor's office obviously does not understand the basics of sterility and infection control, you may need to find another doctor.