Hepatitis C fear for thousands in Nevada

Officials urge patients to be tested for that virus as well as HIV

updated 8:59 p.m. ET, Wed., Feb. 27, 2008

LAS VEGAS - A clinic may have infected a handful of patients with hepatitis C — but about 40,000 more should be tested for that virus, as well as for HIV, health officials said Wednesday.

Six people who underwent procedures at the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada now have the blood-borne hepatitis C virus, the Southern Nevada Health District said in a statement.

Five of them were treated the same day in late September; the sixth is believed to have been infected in July, the district said.

An investigation determined that “unsafe injection practices related to the administration of anesthesia medication might have exposed patients to the blood of other patients,â€