During August 2002 in Oklahoma, USA in a pain remediation clinic, the Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH) received a report of six patients who tested positive for acute hepatitis C virus (HCV). Immediately after this incident was reported the OSDH conducted a study on the clinic patients, serologic survey, interviews, review of medical records, and staff infection control practices (Comstock, 2004). The occurrences founded in the clinic patients were either HCV or HBV (hepatitis B) which both can be contracted from the reuse of needles. Following, a conclusion was made after the study and it was established the mechanism for patient transmission of HCV and HBV in this large hospital-acquired outbreak was the reuse of needles-syringes. Due to these findings, the OSDH had closed the clinic and continued for further investigation. Moreover, it was established that a total of 798 patients out of 908 were tested positive (87.6%); 71 hepatitis C inf
ected patients (8.9%) and 31 hepatitis B infected patients (3.9%). During the investigation, the OSDH examined and found out During medical sessions, a licensed registered nurse anesthetist (CRNA) regularly reused needles and syringes (Comstock, 2004). A single needle and syringe were used to treat up to 24 sequentially treated patients at each session with each of the 3 sedation medications (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2019). Treatment after a patient who was positive for anti-HCV during a medical session was a statistically significant risk factor for contracting the disease HCV infection (RR = 9.2; 95% CI = 3.7-22.5), the same was true for the treatment of patients with hepatitis B surface antigen-positive (RR = 8.5; 95% CI = 4.2-17.0). the final inference made after the initial complaint was filed was that the CRNA must cease the reuse of needles and the transmission of HCV and HBV had stopped and showed no evidence of reoccurrence.