The chief of dental services at the John Cochran St. Louis Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center has been placed on administrative leave after the hospital notified more than 1,800 veterans that they may have been exposed to hepatitis, HIV, and other bloodborne pathogens in the hospital's dental clinic.
On June 28, the VA sent letters to 1,812 veterans who had dental procedures at the St. Louis clinic from February 1, 2009, through March 11, 2010, saying reviews had determined that some sterilization steps in preparing dental instruments did not meet standards.
An independent board will also investigate how employees failed to properly sterilize the equipment, according to an Associated Press (AP) report.
The clinic's dental chief, Danny Turner, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on July 1 that he welcomes the investigation and blames the controversy on "politics."
"I have a lot of information that proves we were doing things correctly," he told the Post-Dispatch.
VA officials told the AP that the infection risk is extremely low and no illnesses have been uncovered so far in the 100 or so potentially affected vets who have gone back to the hospital for follow-up blood work.
The House Committee on Veterans' Affairs said it will also investigate what happened at the center, according to the AP.
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