Becoming infected with blood-borne pathogens like HIV from medical procedures is extremely rare says the CDC:

“Although HIV transmission is possible in health care settings, it is extremely rare. Careful practice of infection control, including universal precautions (i.e., using protective practices and personal protective equipment to prevent HIV and other blood-borne infections) protects patients as well as health care providers from possible HIV transmission in medical and dental offices and hospitals.”

A cohort of dental patients in Tulsa are not living in the CDC’s Never-Never Land.  Current numbers from Tulsa’s dental outbreak are:

HCV: 70

HBV:  5

HIV: 3

Testing costs so far run about $700,00 ($195 per person) for about 3,800 of the 7,000 patients have been tested far.  Cheap when you consider that these folks are now among those who now know their carrier status (good or bad news) and can act appropriately.

The state calls Dr. Harrington a public menace charges “gross negligence” which is appropriate.  Given the discovery of all those multi-dose vials and non-sterile tools of Dr. Harrington’s trade, this outcome will not surprise ASKNOD  readers

The VA had a dental infection problem in Dayton Ohio with at least 9 HCV cases and 2 HCV with fairly limited testing.  NOD wrote about it here: https://asknod.wordpress.com/2011/11/15/vamc-dayton-dental-clinic/

http://www.va.gov/oig/54/reports/VAOIG-10-03330-148.pdf 

The CDC “extremely rare” scenario is pure fantasy but the Tulsa outbreak case shows how extremely likely it is to acquire HCV in dirty health-care settings!

It takes scrupulous and disciplined health care providers to not cut corners in creating sterile environments between patients–as these guidelines show:

 http://www.ada.org/sections/professionalResources/pdfs/guidelines_cdc_infection.pdf

Don’t we deserve it?