1,000 patients to be checked in Hep B scare
16/06/2006 - 07:25:30The Health Service Executive has confirmed that up to 1,000 patients treated in two hospitals in the south-east may be at risk of having contracted Hepatitis B.
Patients will be have to be screened and blood-tested following the scare at Waterford Regional Hospital and Wexford General Hospital.
The illness has been discovered in some patients who attended the two hospitals between January 2005 and February 2006.
The HSE says up to 1,000 other patients may have come into contact with the infected people, but their risk of contracting Hepatitis B is very low.
The virus affects the liver and is highly contagious.
It can take up to six months for patients to recover. Thereafter, they remain immune to it for the rest of their lives.
