Eight Patients At Brooklyn Health Clinic Contract Hepatitis C

JUNE 08TH, 2001

City health officials announced a significant outbreak of Hepatitis C Friday at a Brooklyn health clinic, as eight people treated at the facility have tested positive for the disease.

So far, the Health Department says the eight people came down with symptoms of the contagious disease after undergoing colonoscopies or endoscopies at the Bay Ridge Endoscopy and Digestive Health Center.

Efforts are being made to contact the 2,200 other patients who visited the center since it opened in January of 2000 so they can be tested.

The city is also urging anyone who was treated at the facility in the last year and a half and has questions to contact the Health Department's Hepatitis Hotline at 1 (212) 788-2222.

City officials say seven people are believed to have contracted the disease in the last week of March, and began showing symptoms in early April. The seventh person was thought to have been infected in January.

Hepatitis is a contagious disease that can only be spread through the blood and can cause liver damage.

Right now, authorities are working to determine the source of the outbreak.

Health Commissioner Neal Cohen is stressing that people should not be afraid to undergo colonoscopies or endoscopies. He says they can be life-saving, and that this incident should not deter anyone from relying on them.

The center only opened last year, and has temporarily been shut down as the investigation continues.

[this arrived via email. I have no link for the story.]

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2001