NEW YORK—At least nine dialysis patients contracted hepatitis C while receiving treatment at a Manhattan clinic that was closed last year by state health officials due to unsanitary conditions, according to March 6 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In July 2008, the New York State Department of Health received reports that three dialysis patients were infected with hepatitis C at Manhattan-based Life Care Dialysis Center, which treated 70 to 100 patients daily at 30 stations. According to the CDC, the dialysis clinic did not inform any of the patients they had been infected.
In follow-up investigations, the state’s health department found that six additional dialysis patients were infected between 2001 and 2008, bringing the total to nine, according to the report appearing in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Over the past decade, there have been 33 outbreaks in non-hospital healthcare settings in the United States. Twelve were in outpatient clinics, six in dialysis centers and 15 in long-term care facilities. These outbreaks have resulted in 448 people acquiring hepatitis B or C infections and thousands more being placed at risk, according to a CDC report in the Jan. 6 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.
New York investigators said four of the hepatitis C infections were genetically linked leading them to conclude they were definitely infected at the Life Care clinic. These four patients were treated on the same days of the week and two had been hooked up to the same dialysis machines, according to the report.
