Army hospital contacts 300 in insulin scare

[unhappycamper]

Army hospital contacts 300 in insulin scare
The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday Feb 8, 2009 14:49:49 EST

EL PASO, Texas — Army medical officials have spoken with nearly 300 patients at risk of developing blood-borne illnesses, including hepatitis and HIV, because of improper insulin injections at a West Texas army hospital.

Officials at the Army’s William Beaumont Army Medical Center announced that as many as 2,114 diabetes patients treated at the hospital since August 2007 could have been infected because of an improper procedure for injecting insulin, the El Paso Times reported.

Hospital officials said Thursday the problem is related to the use of an insulin pen system designed to allow a patient to use the same pen several times. The pens, officials said, were inadvertently used multiple times on different patients.

Though a new sterile needle is used for every injection, health officials said the pens contain a reservoir of insulin that allows for multiple uses and blood could be transferred from the needle to the remaining insulin.

Army officials have insisted that that likelihood of infection is low, citing a study which concluded that in only 4 percent of cases blood traveled from a needle back into the insulin reservoir.


Rest of article at: http://armytimes.com/news/2009/02/ap_insulinshots_020809/#2e