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Hygiene scandal in the clinicUp to 40 patients infected with HIV during surgery?
An inadequately disinfected screwdriver could have infected 40 people with HIV (symbolic image)
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This case sounds incredible.
A surgical screwdriver that was inadequately disinfected by medical staff forces around 40 patients to be tested for HIV and hepatitis. They have all been operated on at the Hôpital de l'Enfant-Jésus in Quebec (Canada) since 2017.
The surgical equipment has been cleaned incorrectly over the years
“I was quite surprised, you can't imagine it,” a patient named Martine told the Canadian newspaper Le Journal de Montréal. Around two years after her operation, she received a call from the Hôpital de l'Enfant-Jésus hospital in Quebec. The news: She is part of a group of around 40 patients who are supposed to be tested for HIV and hepatitis as a precaution.
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As the University Hospital of Québec-Université Laval explains through its spokesman Jean-Thomas Grantham, it is a surgical screwdriver that has not been properly disinfected for years. The rarely used instrument has been inadequately cleaned since 2017. The reason obviously lies in the design. Part of the handle may come loose. But it is precisely this detail that was not always taken into account.
The staff did not completely disassemble the tool – but still cleaned it. All affected procedures took place in the same clinic. The hospital has now contacted patients and asked them to undergo tests.
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Patients are unsettled and worried
Martine is particularly troubled by the thought that she didn't know anything for so long. “If you can’t trust the hospital, what should you do?” She had the blood test done immediately. But the wait for the results drags on. It should take two to three weeks. For her it feels endless. “I don’t have any symptoms, but I still think about it,” she says.
The University Hospital emphasizes to the Journal de Montréal that the tests are being carried out out of caution. The risk of infection is low. In addition, the cleaning process has now been adjusted. The instrument is now being correctly disassembled and disinfected, confirms Marilou Couture, also a spokeswoman for the hospital.
But the doubts remain. “Even if they tell me it’s only one case in 100,000, that worries me,” says Martine. A sentence that shows how great the uncertainty is. With her and the other people affected by the hygiene scandal.
Sources used: Le Journal de Montreal
