(DETROIT FREE PRESS) - Michigan's health department today alerted the public that people at high risk for hepatitis C who got injections of narcotic medicines at four Detroit-area hospitals as many as seven years ago should notify the hospitals to be tested for the disease.
The hospitals involved include University Hospital, part of the University of Michigan Health System in Ann Arbor; Oakwood Annapolis Hospital; and two Detroit Medical Center facilities: Sinai-Grace and Harper University Hospital, in Detroit.
The notification from the Michigan Department of Community Health follows the indictment in New Hampshire of a traveling surgical technician who worked at the four Michigan hospitals.
David Kwiatkowski, 32, may have spread the virus to others by injecting himself with painkiller drugs he stole from hospitals then returning the needles he used in the injections to hospital stocks, where they were reused in other patients, according to U.S. Attorney John Kacavas of Concord, N.H.
Michigan's health department tracked Kwiatkowski to the four Detroit-area hospitals. He worked from June-October, 2005, at Sinai-Grace; from Oct. 2005 to Sept. 2006 at Harper; from Sept. 11-Dec. 8, 2006 at U-M; and from Jan. 15-Sept. 15, 2007 at Oakwood Annapolis.
Those at risk of the disease who got narcotic injections in those time periods should call:
Sinai-Grace and Harper: 888-300-3627.
U-M: 877-233-4040.
Oakwood Annapolis: 734-467-4111.
Hepatitis C is a chronic disease that causes liver failure.
Detroit Free Press