The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment reported on Wednesday, Aug. 1, that three past patients of Dr. Stephen Stein have tested positive for either HIV, hepatitis B and/or hepatitis C. Here are the details.
* According to a July 12 CDPHE press release, patients who received intravenous medications including sedation under the care of Stein, a dentist with practices in Highlands Ranch and Denver, between September 1999 to June 2011 were asked to be tested for HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C.
* The request for testing came after an investigation by the department revealed that Stein was reusing syringes and needles used to inject medications through patients' IV lines during oral and facial surgery procedures. The needles and syringes were often used for days at a time, CDPHE reported.
* According to CDPHE, the reuse of injection needles has been shown to transmit infections.
* Stein Oral and Facial Surgery was closed in June 2011. Stein is currently not practicing.
* Patients who were previously treated by Stein and tested in mid-July for infections were asked to report positive tests to their county health department or to the state health department.
* According to a July 16 report by Denver's 9News, 8,000 former patients of Stein received letters or were notified through the media of the need to get tested, and hundreds called a state hotline within a matter of days in order to schedule those tests.
* 9News reported that a new syringe and needle costs about 20 cents. If a doctor were to re-use the same needle on 8,000 patients, it would save him about $1,600.
* The Center for Disease Control stated that the risk of getting HIV from a needle with HIV positive blood in it is 0.3 percent, 9News reported.
* The CDPHE's Aug. 1 press release states that the department has identified three people who tested positive for one of the listed infections. Due to patient confidentiality, the type of infections were not revealed.
* The positive tests do not mean that the results are linked to Stein's dental practice, the CDPHE explained. The potential for infections from other sources makes it impossible to determine whether the virus is due to the unsafe injection practices which took place at Stein's office.
* According to the CDPHE's literature on the matter of unsafe injection practices, more than 125,000 people in the U.S. were told to get tested for hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV due to the reuse of syringes.
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