In what is largest potential exposures of humans to hepatitis and HIV this year, 7000 patients of a dental practice in Tulsa, Oklahoma have been notified that they may have contracted the disease.
Health inspectors claim that the office had not been practicing proper cleaning of instruments for some time, finding "numerous violations of health and safety laws and major violations of the State Dental Act," the health department said.
This all happened despite the dentist, W. Scott Harrington, knowing that several of his patients had infectious diseases. People who have had Harrington as a dentist at any point in the last seven years are now being urged to get free testing done at the health department for hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and HIV.
"Hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV are serious medical conditions, and infected patients may not have outward symptoms of the disease for many years," the health department said.
A spokeswoman for the Tulsa Health Department also noted that they are unsure just how long this negligence has been going on for. Harrington has been practicing as a dentist for 36 years.
A complaint against Harrington reported that health investigators had been checking into a hepatitis C case at the office when they uncovered numerous safety violations there. Among the issues were cross-contamination of instruments, a separate set of instruments used on infected patients, and sterilization equipment that wasn't working properly.
"This is an unprecedented event," executive director of the state Board of Dentistry Susan Rogers said in an interview. "To my knowledge, this has never happened before as far as a public notification of a (hepatitis C) case involving a dental office."
Sadly, this is not the first incident of HIV exposure in a dental office. Last year the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment found that Dr. Stephen Stein had reused needles for procedures on several patients. Six former patients of Stein reportedly tested positive for either hepatitis of HIV.
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