How should public health officials handle infection advisories?

Public health officials in Ottawa are sending letters Monday to nearly 7,000 patients who had procedures at a local medical facility to warn them they may have been exposed to hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV.

Dr. Isra Levy says the chances of anyone being infected are 'very low.' (CBC) Ottawa Public Health says it has been investigating a private facility for the past several months because of "lapses in infection control."

The officials have not named the private, non-hospital facility or the doctors involved in the case.

OPH says it doesn't know when the lapse took place, so they are contacting patients who have had procedures within a 10-year period.

However, the chances that someone could have been infected with hepatitis B is less than one in a million. In the case of hepatitis C, those odds drop to less than one in 50 million and are less than one in three billion for HIV, according to OPH.

The public health officials are unaware of anyone who has been infected.

"Even though the risk of infection to those who had the procedures related to this issue is very low, I wanted to ensure that affected patients are made aware of the situation, so they can consider being tested for these infections," said Dr. Isra Levy on Saturday afternoon.

Dr. Michael Gardam, director of infection prevention and control for Toronto's University Health Network, told CBC News that in cases like this where the risk is so low, not informing the patients at all might be the better choice.

"When you get to less than one-in-a-million, we often times give advice not to tell anybody because the risk is so small, that you're actually creating more harm by worrying people," said Gardam.

In the comments on our stories on CBCNews.ca, the CBC Community expressed frustration that the facility had not been named immediately.

Levy said more detailed information won't be released until the affected patients get their letters.

How do you think situations like this should be handled? Let us know in the comments below.



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