Hepatitis C and other blood borne diseases are threatening thousands of people in Nevada as a result of unsafe admnistration of anesthesia at the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada in Las Vegas. So far six people who received treatment at the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada have tested positive for Hepatitis C. However, health officials in Nevada want another 40,000 people to be tested for the Hepatitis C virus, as well as HIV.

Hepatitis C is a blood disorder that is usually  transmitted through blood-to-blood contact. Hepatitis C is usually asymptomatic and often leads to
long-term infection resulting in approximately 70% of those infected developing liver disease. Hepatitis C is a risk factor for liver cancer and can lead to the need for a liver transplant.

Since early January, the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada Health has been under investigation after health officials learned of three people
who had been diagnosed with Hepatitis C.  The Southern Nevada Health District investigation revealed that “unsafe injection practices related to
the administration of anesthesia medication might have exposed patients to the blood of other patients."

The Hepatitis C virus may have been spread to those 6 people when the staff at the clinic reused syringes and used a single dose of anesthesia medication on multiple patients. Syringes can become contaminated by the backflow of blood when patients with a blood-borne disease were
injected with medication, health officials said. That syringe, in turn, would be reused to withdraw medication from a different vial. That vial
could become contaminated and result in infection.

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