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Mandy Zuo

Sixty-nine dialysis patients in a hospital in eastern China are in a stable condition after being infected with hepatitis C, authorities said on Monday.
Dongtai People’s Hospital in Jiangsu province reported the outbreak in its haemodialysis centre on May 13, the Dongtai city government said in a statement.
An investigation found the infection was caused by poor implementation of infection control rules, and the hospital’s Communist Party secretary, president and vice-president were sacked.
Experts from Yancheng, the city that governs Dongtai, and from the health ministry were sent to help treat the patients.




The Dongtai health commission refused to comment further, and calls to the hospital went unanswered.
The hospital covered treatment fees for all of those infected and its haemodialysis centre had continued to operate as normal, Caixin reported on Sunday.
Unsafe injection practices in health care settings are considered to be a major route of hepatitis C virus transmission, according to the World Health Organisation.
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In China, the occurrence of such cases had decreased considerably in recent decades, Dr Lu Hongzhou, a leading infectious disease expert from Shanghai Public Health Clinical Centre, said.
“Haemodialysis patients often get infected because the infusion tube is used multiple times instead of just once,” Lu said. “Such things used to be common in China, but not any more. The Dongtai case is about violation of operation norms.”
Regulations for haemodialysis centres issued by the Chinese health ministry in 2016 state that all tools used in blood collection and injection should be disposed of immediately after use, and a test for hepatitis B and C, HIV and syphilis should be conducted on all patients who apply for dialysis.
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They are required to have a check-up every six months if found to be infected with any of those viruses.
In 2017, Chengyang District People’s Hospital, in Qingdao in Shandong province, apologised after nine haemodialysis patients were infected with hepatitis C because of a breach of procedures.
The previous year, 26 haemodialysis patients in a hospital in Shangluo in Shaanxi province were infected in similar circumstances.


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69 dialysis patients at Chinese hospital infected with hepatitis C

Unsafe injections are considered a major route of hepatitis C transmission. Photo: Handout

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epa07578095 Dr. Muzaffar Ghangro, a Pakistani local pediatrician alleged to have been responsible for the HIV outbreak, sits behind bars at a police station in Rato Dero, near Larkana, Pakistan, 03 May 2019 (issued 17 May). Dr. Ghangro was arrested on April 30 on charges of infecting hundreds of patients mostly children at the facility with HIV, for avenging him being affected by HIV, a charge he denied. With about 20,000 new HIV infections reported in 2017 alone, Pakistan currently has the second fastest-growing HIV rates crossed Asia, according to the United Nations. EPA-EFE/WAQAR HUSSAIN

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Dongtai People’s Hospital in Jiangsu province reports outbreak in its haemodialysis centre
Hospital’s party chiefs sacked after infection is blamed on ‘poor implementation of infection control rules’


Hospital’s party chiefs sacked after infection in haemodialysis centre at Dongtai People’s Hospital in Jiangsu province is blamed on ‘poor implementation of infection control rules’.
