Rhône: 5,000 patients called for an HIV screening test after a sterilization defect

It was a letter sent in May by the dental care center of the civil hospices in Lyon (Rhône) which plunged 5,000 patients into anguish. It is about the risk of infection, precautionary measures and it recommends a screening test for HIV and hepatitis C and B. In the newspaper Le Progrès, a patient testifies: “I’m still shaking… I’m really scared. I’ve struggled all my life, I wouldn’t want to have caught a mess like that a few months before retirement”.

The risk of contamination would be low

The alert was given on December 19, first internally. According to an employee who wishes to remain anonymous, that day the same material was used on two different patients. The civil hospices evoke a dysfunction in the procedures and errors. They indicate that the instruments were well sterilized, but that the part carrying the instrument was only disinfected. The risk of contamination would be very low.