LAS VEGAS " Public health officials said Monday they've identified an eighth case of hepatitis C involving a patient at a Las Vegas endoscopy center named as the source of other recent cases of the potentially fatal liver disease.
The Southern Nevada Health District says the patient underwent a procedure in June 2005 at the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada and developed symptoms of acute hepatitis C nine weeks later. The patient had no other reported risk factors for the illness and has since recovered, officials said.
The Nevada state Legislative Committee on Health Care is holding hearings Monday in Las Vegas about unsafe injection practices that led to a hepatitis C outbreak among patients at several Las Vegas-area outpatient clinics formerly headed by Dr. Dipak Desai.
Health administrators have advised tens of thousands of former patients at the clinics to be checked for exposure to hepatitis strains C, B and HIV.