DHMH: Case of Hep C related to outbreak

The Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH) has announced that a patient from the Baltimore VA Medical Center has been diagnosed with hepatitis C infection is closely related to infections linked to David Kwiatkowski.

 

Kwiatkowski is a healthcare worker accused of diverting narcotics for person use and infecting people in three states with hepatitis C in the process. 

 

DHMH announced the results of a special molecular testing done at the CDC on a blood specimen from the patient with a hepatitis C infection.

 

The patient was among the approximately 1,700 patients of four Maryland healthcare facilities who had been notified to get tested for hepatitis C because they had undergone procedures in which Kwiatkowski was potentially involved. 

 

The patient survived and is not currently hospitalized. 

 

The case is associated with the multi-state outbreak. Although no documented incidents of drug diversion associated with the healthcare worker were reported to DHMH, this finding suggests the possibility that such activity may have occurred in Maryland.

 

The investigation into the possibility of cases at three other facilities where Kwiatkowski worked, Johns Hopkins Hospital, General Hospital and Southern MD Hospital Center are ongoing. 

 

Additional related infections have been identified in New Hampshire and Kansas.