Miami vets get procedures with unsterile equipment

[darrels joy]

MIAMI – Officials say more than 3,000 patients at a Veterans Affairs hospital in Miami had colonoscopies with equipment that wasn't properly sterilized.

They've been told they should be tested for HIV and other diseases.

The VA insists the risk of infection is minimal and only involved tubing on equipment, not any device that actually touched a patient. But it's the second recent announcement of errors during colonoscopies at VA facilities.

Last month, more than 6,000 patients at a clinic in Tennessee were told they may have been exposed to infectious body fluids during colonoscopies.

The VA also said 1,800 veterans treated at an ear, nose and throat clinic in Augusta, Ga., were alerted they could have been exposed to an infection due to improper disinfection of an instrument.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090323/..._colonoscopies