Nearly 2,500 women who underwent biopsies at the Miramichi Regional Hospital's colposcopy clinic in New Brunswick may be at risk of HIV and other infections because standard sterilizing procedures weren't always followed over a 14-year period, Horizon Health Network officials say.
The 2,497 current and former patients who had the procedure will receive a registered letter in the mail, offering that they have blood tests to check for HIV, hepatitis C and hepatitis B as a precaution, said Gordon Dow, an infectious disease specialist.
He emphasized, however, that the risk of infection is "very, very small."
"I am very confident there will not be a single case of infection acquired through this process," Dow said during a news conference Wednesday.
"However, we will discover some cases" of the infections, based on their prevalence in the general population, he said, adding: "So we will identify people, but none of those people would have acquired their infection through the process."
A colposcopy is a diagnostic procedure used to closely examine a woman's cervix, vagina and vulva for signs of disease, such as cancer. It is often performed if a Pap test has come back with abnormal results.
Employee flagged sterilization issue
The forceps used during biopsies between May 1999 and May 24, 2013, were not always sterilized in accordance with the North American standard, which has been in place for more than 50 years, officials said.
In some cases, the instruments were put through a high-level disinfection process instead.
High-level disinfection is a process used to remove to kill "most germs" from medical instruments that come into contact with mucus membranes or blood, said Dow. It is achieved through various processes, such as pasteurization or by using chemical products.
