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New Hepatitis C Cases Connected to NYC Anesthesiologist

June 21, 2007

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According to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, it was recently discovered that a NYC anesthesiologist might have transmitted Hepatitis C to at least three patients. With over 4,500 other people treated by this same doctor being made aware of their potential risk of exposure, find out how common transmission of the disease is within a medical setting.

3 Hepatitis C Cases Linked to NYC Doctor
www.cfnews13.com

NEW YORK(AP)

Authorities urged 4,500 people who were treated by an anesthesiologist to get tested for hepatitis C, saying three patients may have been infected as the doctor gave them anesthesia.

The city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said Thursday it was mailing letters to everyone at risk and noted that the liver-damaging disease cannot be spread by casual contact.

Three people treated by the doctor in August were diagnosed with hepatitis C in recent months, the health department said. Laboratory tests suggest they were infected while getting intravenous anesthesia drugs during outpatient procedures, according to the agency.

Authorities have not identified the anesthesiologist. A state Health Department spokeswoman, Claudia Hutton, said the agency had not established "that the doctor is guilty of doing anything wrong."

The doctor has had a medical license since 1977 and "does not have a history of spreading infection," Hutton said.

City authorities said they were contacting everyone treated by the anesthesiologist while he or she practiced at 10 different medical offices in New York City, from Dec. 1, 2003, to May 1, 2007. The doctor has stopped practicing during the investigation, the city health department said.

"Transmission of hepatitis in a medical setting is rare, but as a precaution we are reaching out to anyone who could have potentially been exposed," Dr. Marci Layton, the agency's assistant commissioner for communicable disease, said in a statement.

She stressed that intravenous medications are "very safe when standard infection-control procedures are followed," and that patients should not avoid important procedures because of worries about infections.

Hepatitis C is a chronic, blood-borne virus that that can cause scarring or other damage to the liver. It often does not cause noticeable symptoms, although some people experience flu-like symptoms, a yellowing of the skin and the whites of the eyes, dark urine and pale feces. It is treatable, but many people who have the disease do not even know they are infected.

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Since making headlines, the number of possible Hepatitis C cases linked to the anesthesiologist in New York has nearly doubled. The doctor, whose identity has finally been revealed, now faces a lawsuit from one of his victims.

Doctor sued in spread of hepatitis C
www.upi.com

NEW YORK, June 24 (UPI) -- Two more people have contracted hepatitis C after receiving intravenous anesthesia from a doctor in New York who is under investigation.

Dr. Brian Goldweber, 64, is accused of spreading the disease by failing to follow proper infection control protocols, The New York Post reported Sunday.

A 45-year-old woman with a prominent corporate post filed a lawsuit last week against Goldweber and three other doctors at the Manhattan practice, where she underwent a colonoscopy in 2004.

She filed her suit as "Jane Doe" due to what she called the "stigma, discrimination and embarrassment" of a hepatitis C infection, which typically affects drug addicts and the sexually promiscuous.

Another woman has notified the city Health Department after contracting hepatitis C after an outpatient procedure. That notification brings the number of possible victims to at least five, the Post said.

Posted by Editors at June 21, 2007 2:51 PM