Air Force Al Udeid Air Base Hep and HIV Exposure?

Air Force: 135 Patients May Have Been Exposed to HIV, Hepatitis
Military.com
by Oriana Pawlyk
20 Jun 2017

The Air Force said patients with questions or concerns may reach out to their healthcare resolution specialist at the following contacts: U.S. Eastern Daylight time zone or outside the continental U.S.: (937) 656-3818; U.S. Pacific or Mountain time zone, Hawaii, or Alaska: (707) 423-3443; and Central time zone: (228) 376-5603.

FILE -- Air Force doctors perform a diagnostic procedure on a patient. (Air Force File Image)

The U.S. Air Force is notifying 135 patients who received colonoscopy or endoscopy procedures at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar that they may have been exposed to blood-borne diseases such as HIV or hepatitis.

Air Force Medical Services announced Tuesday that scopes used for the upper and lower gastrointestinal procedures over an eight-year-period from April 2008 and April 2016 at the base clinic were not properly cleaned in accordance with Food and Drug Administration guidelines, Office of the Air Force Surgeon General spokeswoman Larine Barr told Military.com on Wednesday.

As a result, patients could have been exposed to possible viral infections that include human immunodeficiency virus, known as HIV, "and two kinds of Hepatitis (B and C)," Barr said. "The risk of infection is very small, particularly in a deployed environment, but we recommend that patients receive diagnostic testing," she said in an email.
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No postings yet for HIV-positive Marines, sailors since policy change

No postings yet for HIV-positive Marines, sailors since policy change
By Matthew M. Burke
Stars and Stripes
Published: May 22, 2013

SASEBO NAVAL BASE, Japan — More than nine months have passed since the Navy decided to open up overseas and large-ship platform assignments to HIV-positive sailors and Marines, but not a single sailor has gotten such a posting.

The Navy’s Personnel Command is grappling with how to implement the instruction, which also covers blood-borne pathogens like hepatitis B and C.

Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus handed down the policy in August 2012.

Personnel Command officials declined to comment on when the policy would actually take effect. Instructions can take time to implement, Personnel Command spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Rob Lyon told Stars and Stripes in an email.

“Navy Personnel Command recently completed a review of SECNAVINST 5300.30E, dealing with blood-borne pathogens, to ensure sailors affected will have the greatest opportunity to be successful, and any concerns by their receiving commands will be addressed,” Lyon said. “We will more than likely have more to discuss once the Milpersman article (implementation guidance) has been chopped by all parties.”
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716 patients at VA may have been exposed to HIV and Hepatitis

716 patients at VA may have been exposed to HIV
Buffalo News
BY: JERRY ZREMSKI
NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF

WASHINGTON – More than 700 patients at the Buffalo VA Medical Center may have been exposed to HIV, hepatitis B or hepatitis C because of the inadvertent reuse of insulin pens that were intended to be used only once.

The possible reuse of the insulin delivery devices occurred between Oct. 19, 2010, and Nov. 1, 2012, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs said in a memo sent Friday to local members of Congress, which The Buffalo News obtained.

“There is a very small chance that some patients could have been exposed to the Hepatitis B virus, the Hepatitis C virus, or HIV, based on practices identified at the facility,” the memo said.

The VA told local lawmakers that 716 patients at the facility may have been exposed to the reused insulin pens, and that 570 of those patients are still living.
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16 patients have hepatitis in Army needle scare

16 patients have hepatitis in Army needle scare
By Alicia A. Caldwell - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Mar 10, 2009 16:27:31 EDT

EL PASO, Texas — Army officials say 16 patients exposed to a mismanaged insulin needle program have tested positive for hepatitis B or C.

The William Beaumont Army Medical Center patients were among more than 2,000 diabetics who may have been exposed to blood-borne illnesses between August 2007 and January 2009 because of the program that systematically gave multiple patients injections from the same insulin pen.

Officials at the Army hospital at Fort Bliss have said it’s unclear if the patients contracted hepatitis from the injections.