Viral Scare Shakes Long Island Hospital

Lapses in equipment cleaning at a Long Island hospital might have exposed 180 people to HIV and hepatitis viruses, the New York Times said Wednesday.

Lapses in equipment cleaning at a Long Island hospital might have exposed 180 people to HIV and hepatitis viruses, the New York Times said Wednesday. The North Shore University Hospital notified patients last week they might have been exposed to infection because instruments used for routine endoscopies might not have been properly disinfected. Since then 86 of the patients have returned for precautionary blood tests, and none has tested positive for hepatitis or HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, a hospital spokesman said. The scare began when hospital officials discovered two employees had failed to test a disinfectant bath used to clean the endoscopes, said Terry Lynam, a spokesman for the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, the operator of the hospital. The hospital suspended one without pay and the other was fired, he said. The New York State Department of Health is investigating the lapse, a spokesman said, but has not taken action against the hospital. (Source: United Press International, June 2004)