Two More Patients Test Positive For Hepatitis C At Virginia Hospital
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (AP) – Three people have now tested positive for hepatitis C at a Newport News hospital, but health officials say that’s not out of the ordinary.
Riverside Regional Medical Center is providing precautionary testing to about 300 patients after a nurse anesthetist who worked there last year was accused of infecting patients in Texas with Hepatitis C.
About one in 139 people will test positive for Hepatitis C in Hampton Roads, according to Virginia Department of Health statistics. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 3 percent to 5 percent of the population would test positive, a hospital spokesman said.
Hospital officials say Riverside staff have tested 227 patients so far.
The nurse, 45-year-old retired Army Capt. Jon Dale Jones, has submitted to Riverside officials a lab report stating his Hepatitis C is inactive now, meaning it wouldn’t spread to another person. He worked at the hospital from July 9 through Dec. 22.
He was arrested last month in Miami on federal charges of assaulting three patients and possession of a controlled substance by fraud. At least 15 military service members or their relatives are believed to have been infected with hepatitis by Jones, who also is suspected of stealing their painkillers during surgery at an El Paso military hospital in 2004.
Jones has pleaded not guilty.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
