"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance."
- Thomas Jefferson
"The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep's for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as his liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty. Plainly, the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of liberty."- Abraham Lincoln
May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't.
- General George Patton Jr
"Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment nothing can fail. Without it nothing can succeed.
He who molds opinion is greater than he who enacts laws."-Abraham Lincoln
"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."
-- John Adams (Address to the Military, 11 October 1798)
Find out how loyal career Military, PHS and NOAA personnel are punished by
The Order of the Silver Rose
Honoring Victims
of Agent Orange
Illnesses & Deaths
with Gratis Medal -
Vietnam Veterans
Subscribe Today! Monthly Print Issue
12 Issues - $15.00
Mt. KIAMIA
Veterans can find out information about using their VA Benefits including the VA Loan benefit.
Important information for veterans: asbestos-containing products such as insulation or floor & ceiling tiles were often used on military ships and within military housing, and veterans may have been unknowingly exposed. Prior exposure to asbestos is the only determined cause of mesothelioma, a deadly cancer that has no known cure and strikes countless veterans and their families. For more information regarding asbestos exposure in the military and support for veterans, please visit Mesothelioma.com
VA: 3 patients HIV-positive after clinic mistakes
The latest numbers here:
By BILL POOVEY
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hRfzwTuaKGyWdjqvjGCLJpLI6AlAD97KFVA00
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) — Three patients exposed to contaminated medical equipment at Veterans Affairs hospitals have tested positive for HIV, the agency said Friday. Initial tests show one patient each from VA medical facilities in Murfreesboro, Tenn.; Augusta, Ga.; and Miami has the virus that causes AIDS, according to a VA statement.
The three cases included one positive HIV test reported earlier this month, but the VA didn't identify the facility involved at the time.
The patients are among more than 10,000 getting tested because they were treated with endoscopic equipment that wasn't properly sterilized and exposed them to other people's body fluids.
Vietnam veteran Samuel Mendes, 60, said he was surprised to learn of an HIV case linked to the Miami facility, where he had a colonoscopy. He was told he wasn't among those at risk.
"I was hoping and expecting to not get anyone contaminated like that," he said. "It's probably a little worse than we thought."
The VA also said there have been six positive tests for the hepatitis B virus and 19 positive tests for hepatitis C at the three locations.
There's no way to prove patients were exposed to the viruses at its facilities, the agency said.
"These are not necessarily linked to any endoscopy issues and the evaluation continues," the statement said.
The VA has said it does not yet know if veterans treated with the same kind of equipment at its other 150 hospitals may have been exposed to the same mistake before the department had a nationwide safety training campaign.
An agency spokeswoman has said the mistake with the equipment was corrected nationwide by the time the campaign ended March 14. The problems discovered in December date back more than five years at the Murfreesboro and Miami hospitals.
The VA's disclosure Friday was the department's first comment since April 3, when the VA reported the one positive HIV test.
VA spokeswoman Katie Roberts has declined to provide any details on how widespread the problems might have been other than saying a review of the situation continues.
She said in an e-mail Friday that "there is a very small risk of harm to patients from the procedures at each site." She said the HIV results "still need to be verified" in additional tests.
The VA statement shows the number of "potentially affected" patients totals 10,797, including 6,387 who had colonoscopies at Murfreesboro, 3,341 who had colonoscopies at Miami and 1,069 who were treated at the ear, nose and throat clinic at Augusta.
More than 5,400 patients, about half of those at risk, have been notified of their follow-up test results, the VA said.
The Friday statement said the VA is "continuing to notify individuals whose letters have been returned as undeliverable, and working with homeless coordinators to reach veterans with no known home address."
The statement also said the VA has assigned more than 100 employees at the three locations to "ensure that affected veterans receive prompt testing and appropriate counseling."
All three sites used endoscopic equipment made by Olympus American Inc., which has said in a statement it is helping the VA address problems with "inadvertently neglecting to appropriately reprocess a specific auxiliary water tube."
Charles Rollins, 62, who served three tours in Vietnam with the Navy from 1966 to 1969, said the news concerns him because he's used the Augusta ear, nose and throat clinic several times.
"That's terrible," he said by phone as he socialized at an American Legion post in Augusta.
Associated Press writers Lisa Orkin in Miami and Dorie Turner in Atlanta contributed to this report.
