Nosocomial Hepatitis C

Via ProMED-mail: everybody is reporting on the multi-incident iatrogenic transmission of hepatitis C at a clinic in Nevada. (Here, for example, is the report from Fox5 News, Las Vegas.) The Southern Nevada Health District site has a FAQ with graphics of the smoking syringe:

Following a joint investigation with the Nevada State Bureau of Licensure and Certification (BLC) and with consultation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the health district determined that unsafe injection practices related to the administration of anesthesia medication might have exposed patients to the blood of other patients.

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes

New Scientist reports on genetically modifying tomatoes with viral DNA to create cheap, edible vaccines for hepatitis B and HIV:

Mice fed a solution containing the tomatoes in powdered form developed high levels of antibodies in their blood to both viruses. Equally important, the researchers found antibodies on mucosal surfaces, where the viruses can gain entry to the body through sexual contact. "That's where you want it to be protective," says Rose Hammond of the US Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service in Beltsville, Maryland, which is collaborating with the Russian researchers.

Hepatitis C Outbreak in Maryland

Via ProMED-mail: The Baltimore Sun reports a nosocomial outbreak of hepatitis C caused, strangely enough, by a contaminated batch of technetium-99m, a radioactive isotope used in diagnostic procedures.

The one fatality so far is a healthy 79-year-old man who went to a cardiology clinic in October and died at Christmas. Health officials are unsure how the isotope became so contaminated that all patients who received it have tested positive for hepatitis C, but they do believe the contamination took place at the pharmacy that prepared the isotope, rather than the cardiology clinic.

Hepatitis E in Iraq

The International Herald Tribune blames infrastructure problems for an outbreak of hepatitis E in two Iraqi cities.