Vials Transmitted Hepatitis

Photo courtesy Rep. Anthony Weiner Congressmember Anthony Weiner (D-Brooklyn/Queens), a member of the House Subcommittee on Health, released data on Sunday, February 17 showing that multidose vials have infected 75 New Yorkers, including 19 people from Brooklyn and four from Queens, with hepatitis.

Misused multi-dose vials have infected at least 75 New Yorkers with forms of hepatitis during a three-year period, an analysis from Congressmember Anthony Weiner (D- Brooklyn/Queens) showed on Monday. Weiner, a member of the House Commerce Health Subcommittee, announced he would call for hearings with the federal Food and Drug Administration to investigate a ban of these risky, multi-dose vials.

The mistaken transmissions of both hepatitis B and C, two viruses that attack the liver, resulted from the improper use of multi-dose vials and syringes, equipment which is intended to deliver medication more efficiently but can also transmit infected blood between patients. The infections come despite the fact that New York state mandates some of the most rigorous safety and prevention training in the nation for administering multi-dose vials.

Weiner said, "This is common sense- if equipment is leading to mistaken infections of a preventable disease, then we should pull it from the market. Period. Our focus should be on curing and preventing diseases, not mistakenly infecting New Yorkers."

Weiner's call for an investigation of multi-dose vials follows from the recommendations of the New York state and city Departments of Health to the Food and Drug Administration, which outlined the health risks associated with these vials in a recent letter and urged the FDA to eliminate the manufacture and distribution of them.

The mistaken infections, recorded by the New York state and city Departments of Health in 2001, 2002, and 2006, were transmitted during a wide variety of medical procedures, from administering anesthesia to giving injections of vitamin B12. Basic symptoms associated with hepatitis include joint and stomach pain, tiredness and sore muscles.

The Departments of Health used genetic testing to track the outbreaks of hepatitis.

In all, there were 75 total vial-related hepatitis outbreaks in the three years cited: 52 in Manhattan, 19 in Brooklyn and four in Queens. No outbreaks were recorded in The Bronx and Staten Island.

Treatments for hepatitis vary; some mild cases of hepatitis B require only rest, while serious cases of hepatitis C can require treatments including a $15,000, 48-week therapy or even a $280,000 procedure for a liver transplant. In fact, more than 80 percent of individuals with an untreated case of the virus develop chronic liver disease, accounting for one-third of the 1,000 liver transplants nationwide each year.