An outbreak of hepatitis C at a Nevada clinic in the United States may be "the tip of an iceberg" of safety problems at clinics around the country, said the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The city of Las Vegas closed the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada last Friday after state health officials confirmed six patients had contracted hepatitis C because of unsafe practices, including clinic staff reusing syringes and vials.

Nevada health officials are trying to contact about 40,000 patients who received anesthesia by injection at the clinic between March 2004 and Jan. 11 to urge them to get tested for hepatitis C, hepatitis B and HIV.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., met Monday with CDC head Dr. Julie Gerberding, and on a media conference call after their meeting both strongly condemned practices at the clinic.

Health care accreditors "would consider this a patient safety error that falls into the category of a 'never event,' meaning this should never happen in contemporary health care organizations," said Gerberding.

“This is the largest number of patients that have ever been contacted for a blood exposure in a health-care setting. But unfortunately we have seen other large-scale situations where similar practices have led to patient exposures,” Gerberding said.

Reid said he would work with Gerberding to try to get the CDC more resources in an emergency spending bill Congress is to take up in April.

State health officials said they weren't sure how many of the 40,000 patients they'd been able to contact since making the risk public last Wednesday. At least initially they didn't have correct addresses for 1,400, officials said.

(Xinhua/Agencies March 5, 2008)