NH health officials to announce plans for expanded hepatitis C testing
Aug. 03--CONCORD -- New Hampshire health officials will outline their plan this afternoon to expand patient testing in the hepatitis C outbreak at Exeter Hospital to an additional 3,400 patients.
The Department of Health and Human Services has scheduled a 2 p.m. press conference in Concord to discuss the patient testing.
So far, only patients who were treated in the hospital's cardiac catheterization laboratory have been asked to get tested.
It's believed that a former cardiovascular technician who worked primarily in the CCL is response for infecting patients with the virus.
More than 1,000 patients have been tested, and 30 have been diagnosed with the cases of hepatitis C linked with the outbreak.
Earlier this month, state health officials announced a major expansion of their screening program related to the viral outbreak.
Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner Nicholas Toumpas and State Epidemiologist Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis will be in attendance, as well as "Regional Public Health Network Partners," according to an announcement from DHHS.
They are now asking anyone who had an operation at Exeter Hospital or who was admitted to the intensive care unit between April 2011 and May 25, 2012, to be screened for the liver disease. The recommendation excludes patients who underwent ambulatory surgery.
The testing is being expanded because officials have learned the suspect, David Kwiatkowski, had access to surgical areas inside the hospital.
Kwiatkowski, who has been employed in at least eight states since 2007, was hired to Exeter Hospital in April 2011.
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(c)2012 the Foster's Daily Democrat (Dover, N.H.)
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