Over a thousand surgical patients at Goshen Hospital in Indiana may have been exposed to viruses due to an error in the sanitizing procedure for surgical equipment.
According to a press release from Goshen Health, more than 1,000 surgical patients may have been exposed to several viruses, namely HIV, hepatitis C and hepatitis B due to a sanitizing procedure error.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Hepatitis C is a liver infection caused by a blood-borne virus and is usually spread by sharing needles or equipment to inject drugs while Hepatitis B is spread when bodily fluid is passed from an infected person to someone who is not infected.
Meanwhile, HIV or human immunodeficiency virus weakens the immune system by attacking important cells that fight disease and infection.
Liz Fisher, marketing specialist for Goshen Health, said one step in a multi-step cleaning process was missed by a technician, which could have possibly caused contamination in the surgical equipment.
Fisher added that the hospital identified 1,182 surgical patients between April and September of 2019 who may have been affected. She said that those who may have been exposed were sent notification letters offering free testing for the viruses
The hospital has emphasized that those patients who may have been affected is only a  "small subset" and that the risk of exposure is "extremely low". It also argued that they are offering the free testing for the viruses "out of an abundance of caution."
The hospital's president and chief medical officer released a health update on November 20, saying: "While our sterile processing and infectious disease experts believe that the potential transmission of blood borne viruses between patients is extremely remote, out of an abundance of caution, we want to verify through lab blood tests that patients have not been harmed."
The press release also indicated that the hospital has set up a call center or patients to ask questions and schedule testing.
