AN OUTBREAK OF SYRINGE-TRANSMITTED HEPATITIS WITH JAUNDICE IN HOSPITALIZED DIABETIC PATIENTS

Abstract

Hepatitis occurred in 4 of a group of 9 hospitalized diabetic patients during a period of 10 weeks. The course of the illness was benign and there were no fatalities. Investigation of the mode of insulin admn. revealed faulty technic in that a single diabetic syringe was used each morning for each type of insulin admd., with only a change of needle for each patient. Reconstruction of events points to the contamination of insulin vials by the re-entry with previously used syringes and the transmission of icterogenic serum to succeeding patients. The calculated incubation time in each case was characteristic of homologous serum jaundice. That blood collection or the therapeutic inoculation of many substances can accidentally introduce virus hepatitis is well known. The multiple-dose-per-syringe technic should be discarded. The use of individual sterile needle and syringe is mandatory to avoid the hazard of transmission of the increasingly prevalent virus of hepatitis.