Patients @Rose Cancer Center may have been exposed to a viral infection

Health Dept. Advises of possible viral infection

Posted:Monday, August 1, 2011 10:02 AM

(AP) - The Mississippi Department of Health has advised patients of Rose Cancer Center in Summit to get checked out for a possible exposure to a viral infection.

The Enterprise-Journal reports (http://bit.ly/okF9FG) that the Health Department also says the clinic was closed July 20 for "unsafe infection control practices."

In letters sent out this past week, health officials say no cases of Hepatitis B or C or HIV have been reported, but advised patients to undergo screenings at the local health department. That includes anyone who has ever been a patient at the Summit clinic.

The situation arose earlier this month when Rose Center patients turned up sick at Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center.

Currier says the patients were treated July 9 to July 18.

Information from: Enterprise-Journal, http://www.enterprise/-journal.com
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Health Dept. advises of possible viral infection
State health officer Dr. Mary Currier tells the Enterprise-Journal that the situation arose after about some patients of the Rose Cancer Center showed up at the Southwest Regional Medical Center in McComb.
"We know that there were 11 patients seen at the hospital in McComb with invasive bacterial infections who were patients from the clinic," Currier said, referring to "bloodstream infection or pneumonia."
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Rose Cancer Center shut down; patients advised to get screenings
“We investigated what was going on with the clinic and found infection control problems, and to make sure that didn’t continue to happen, we asked them to close,” Currier said.
She wasn’t sure of the exact problems but said clinics are supposed to make sure they don’t transmit viruses or bacteria, that medical items are used only once rather than on multiple patients, and that medications for one patient are not switched to another.
“This is out of a preponderance of caution,” she said. “Because there is a small possibility of this (infection), we want to find those folks in case anything like this happens so they can be treated appropriately. We don’t know when these infection control practices started, so we’re asking anyone who’s been seen at this clinic since it opened to get tested.”
She didn’t know how many people that is, but estimated it’s hundreds...Continue Reading..