Two Veterans Administration Dental Clinic Pateints Test Positive for Hepatitis B

You remember the flap.

Now, some studies have been conducted on the veteran patients and the results do not look good.

Two patients seen at the Dayton VA Medical Center’s dental clinic have confirmed cases of hepatitis B, a spokesman said Monday.

VA officials are unsure if the two patients contracted the disease at the dental clinic. A clinic dentist failed to follow proper infection control protocols, potentially exposing at least 535 patients to bloodborne pathogens between January 1992 and July 2010.

They are the first two confirmed cases linked to the scandal, which has prompted the reassignment of the medical center’s director and has elected officials calling for congressional hearings.

Epidemiological testing, which could take months, may or may not determine whether the clinic was the source of those infections.

The two patients have been notified, VA spokesman Todd Sledge said.

Three other dental clinic patients tested positive for hepatitis C, but the VA is still determining if those cases may have been false positives. It’s also possible those three patients have the virus in an inactive form, Sledge said.

Again, Congress should investigate the breakdown in infection control protocols and why the dentist, Dr. Dwight Pemberton was allowed to practice in an outmoded, unhygienic way.