Seven weeks after the U.S. Veterans' Administration notified more than 3,000 veterans they might have been exposed to hepatitis B, hepatitis C or HIV by improperly cleaned colonoscopy equipment at the VA hospital in Miami, more than a quarter of them -- nearly 1,100 in all -- have not responded for testing, according to numbers provided by the VA.
ASTOUNDING NUMBER
The number is so far above those seen at other VA hospitals where similar problems were reported that one U.S. senator is calling for hearings on the matter.
''There are a bunch of unanswered questions here,'' said David Ward, spokesman for U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., who has asked Sen. Daniel Kahikina Akaka, D-Hawaii, chairman of the U.S. Senate's Veterans Affairs Committee, to hold hearings.
Ward said Burr is trying to figure out, among other things, why a VA report says 28 percent of the veterans in Miami who were notified that they might be infected have not responded for testing, compared to only 6 percent in Augusta, Ga., and 5 percent in Murfreesboro, Tenn., where similar problems with equipment were reported.
VA officials in Washington did not return calls seeking comment. So far, three Miami vets have tested positive for HIV, seven for hepatitis C and one for hepatitis B.
On March 28, the VA sent letters to more than 3,000 veterans who had had colonoscopies at the Miami VA hospital informing them that improperly cleaned equipment might have exposed them to hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV.
Dr. John Vara, the hospital's chief of staff, said at the time that a staffer apparently had only rinsed the equipment between uses instead of sterilizing it with disinfectant as called for in the manufacturer's specifications.
In a May 8 report, the VA said that, in Miami, 3,348 veterans were potentially affected -- up from the original number of 3,260. Of those, 3,179 had been notified, 2,295 had responded and 2,069 had been notified of test results.
The VA report says 89 have declined testing, but they are ``continuing to notify individuals whose letters have been returned as undeliverable and working with homeless coordinators to reach veterans with no known home address.''
11,224 AT RISK
The VA has said improperly cleaned or incorrectly assembled equipment also might have infected 8,387 veterans at the VA hospital in Murfreesboro, Tenn., and 1,069 veterans at the VA hospital in Augusta, Ga.
In the three VA facilities, 11,224 veterans were exposed and 7,510 have been notified of test results. The three hospitals have produced five veterans positive for HIV, 25 for hepatitis C and eight for hepatitis B. The VA says there is no way of knowing if the veterans contracted the viruses from the colonoscopy tools.
At least three investigations of the incident are underway. A VA team of experts has been at the Miami VA hospital since March 27 looking into what went wrong. U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, whose district includes the hospital, expects another report by next week from the VA Inspector General's office. And a U.S. Senate investigator also is probing the situation for the Veterans Affairs Committee.
Also, U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida has sent a letter to Veterans' Affairs secretary Eric Shineski expressing dissatisfaction at the VA's answers so far about the status of the Miami veterans.
Martinez's letter asks Shineski what steps the VA is taking to make sure similar problems do not reoccur.
In a May 1 letter to Martinez, the VA said that endoscopies, which had been halted at the Miami VA hospital, were resumed on April 7 'in accordance with the manufacturers' recommendations.''
The VA has promised to care for all infected veterans even if it can't pinpoint how they were infected.
In Miami, Mary Berrocal, director of the VA Healthcare System, told the Associated Press she has hired a training supervisor to make sure such problems don't happen again. She said that when she first heard about the problem, ``I was heartbroken, you know.''
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