Dirty Equipment May Have Exposed 10,000 Veterans To HIV, Other Infections

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — A congressional panel is pressing the Department of Veterans Affairs to disclose on Tuesday whether non-sterile equipment that may have exposed 10,000 veterans to HIV and other infections was isolated to three Southeast hospitals or is part of a wider problem.
"Somebody is going to have to take responsibility," said U.S. Rep. Phil Roe of Tennessee, the ranking Republican on the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs' oversight and investigation subcommittee.
The subcommittee scheduled Tuesday's hearing in Washington to discuss mistakes involving endoscopic equipment used for colonoscopies and other procedures at its hospitals in Miami, Murfreesboro, Tenn., and Augusta, Ga. with top agency officials and to receive a yet-unreleased report by the VA's inspector general.
Roe said he had not yet seen the report but was told in a briefing Friday that the VA's inspector general conducted a random check on 42 VA locations.
VA officials have said problems discovered at more than a dozen other VA facilities did
not warrant follow-up blood tests for patients. Roe, who is a private physician, has questions about whether the problems were isolated to three hospitals or were more widespread.
"I think this was an institutional breakdown," Roe said.
The VA since February has been warning about 10,000 former patients, some who had colonoscopies as long ago as 2003, to get blood tests for HIV and hepatitis. LinkHere