More hepatitis C cases identified after McKay-Dee, Davis hospital exposures
Positive cases of hepatitis C continue to be recorded as health authorities near completion of their investigation into the outbreak that exposed 7,200 patients to the disease at McKay-Dee Hospital and Davis Hospital and Medical Center, a federal health official said Wednesday.
“They (confirmed cases) have been trickling in throughout the investigation,” said Angela Dunn, a U.S. Centers for Disease Control doctor stationed at the Utah Department of Health.
Of the 7,200 people who were sent letters from the hospitals, only 35 percent have come in for free blood tests to screen for hepatitis C infection, Dunn said, which is a problem, because most people who have hepatitis C have no obvious symptoms and may be infectious to others.
Of patients who have tested positive for the virus so far, some were infected with hepatitis C genome 2b, the variant first identified in the outbreak, Dunn said. Others had different variants of hepatitis C.
“The hospitals have agreed to pay for testing through Jan. 31, to ensure the testing is done in a timely manner,” Dunn said. “We are making every effort to reach out” to other patients exposed so they will come in for testing.
On Oct. 31, 2015, McKay-Dee in Ogden reported 4,800 people may have been exposed to the infectious disease, and it was later disclosed that another 2,400 patients may have been exposed at Davis Hospital and Medical Center in Layton. A former nurse, Elet Neilson — who had worked at both hospitals — had contracted hepatitis C and possibly exposed the patients to the disease.
The exposures occurred between June 2013 and November 2014.
“We do consider this an outbreak,” Dunn said. “When we have two or more hepatitis C-related infections, we consider it an outbreak.”
On Wednesday, Jenny Johnson of the Utah Department of Health confirmed that of those who have undergone blood tests for the disease since November, additional positive tests have been identified. But the state will not release further information before all testing is complete. Completion is expected by the end of January, she said.
“It takes quite a while to get all the testing done,” Johnson said. “By the end of the month, all the testing will be done and we will be able to disclose how many cases there are,” she said.
The state Department of Health has conducted the investigation in partnership with McKay-Dee and Davis hospitals, with the CDC in a consulting role, Dunn said.
“We don’t have any information to release that is different than that from the Department of Health,” McKay-Dee spokesman Chris Dallin said Wednesday. “At this point we encourage people who have received the letter to call 801-387-8580,” he said, to make arrangements for free blood screening for hepatitis C.
Davis Hospital executive Chris Johnson said in a prepared statement that about 50 percent of its patients involved in the investigation have come forward to be tested.
You can reach Mark Shenefelt at mshenefelt@standard.net or 801 625-4224.
