4 on LI urged to test for hepatitis C

Four patients treated in the pain management center of South Nassau Communities Hospital will receive letters this week advising them to be tested for hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV.

The notifications stem from an investigation mounted by health officials last year after a patient treated at the pain center in May 2010 became infected with hepatitis C.

There is no evidence the other viruses were transmitted, but the state is recommending testing for all three "out of an abundance of caution," health investigators said yesterday.

Health department officials say their probe has been conducted with the full cooperation of South Nassau hospital in Oceanside.

The investigation so far has yielded no evidence linking the patient's hepatitis C infection directly to the pain center. However, they are probing the possibility that contaminated medical equipment played a role.

Investigators have found that a patient who was treated earlier on the same day already had a chronic hepatitis C infection. Health officials believe the exposures occurred because a piece of medical equipment was not fully sterilized between patients.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates about 1.3 percent of the U.S. population is infected with hepatitis C.

While the chance is low that any additional patients are at risk of infection, it is standard procedure to recommend testing for other infections that are spread in similar ways, such as hepatitis B and HIV, when a possible transmission of hepatitis C is identified.