HIV Risk For 7,000: HIV And Hepatitis Outbreak At A Dentist Office May Have Infected Thousands Of Patients

7,000 people may have been infected with hepatitis and/or HIV through a Dentist office in Tulsa, Oklahoma within the past six years, according to health officials. 

Investigators say that staffers at W. Scott Harrington's dental practice did use proper techniques or sterilization procedures to clean their needles and utensils.  The doctor, who is a veteran oral surgeon, used bleach to clean the tools he used on patients that he knew had hepatitis which caused the equipment to erode.

"I will tell you that when ... we left, we were just physically kind of sick," said Susan Rogers, executive director of the Oklahoma Board of Dentistry. "I mean, that's how bad (it was), and I've seen a lot of bad stuff over the years."

The state health department is contacting thousands of Harrington's patients starting from 2007 to urge them to get tested for hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV.  They are also offering test free of charge.

One of Harrington's patients named Joyce Baylor heard about the health risk from a news report.

"The (dental) office was clean," Baylor said. "I had no idea that things weren't what they should have been."

Harrington also allowed "unauthorized, unlicensed" employees to perform intravenous sedation of patients, Rogers said, which "is completely unacceptable and illegal in Oklahoma."

Investigators do not know if that practice led to infections in any patients of Harrington.  The 64-year-old dentist voluntarily surrendered his dental license two days after health officials visited his office as part of their investigation.

An official complaint filed before the state dental board described the violations, including "multiple sterilization issues, multiple cross-contamination issues, (and) the drug cabinet was unlocked and unattended."

The investigation began after the health department alerted the dentistry board to a potential hepatitis C infection from Harrington's office.

"Some of the things we found were just absolutely incredible," Rogers said. "It's just basic universal precautions for blood-borne pathogens that they were just not following regular protocols."

Rogers said Harrington told investigators that he had a higher population of HIV and hepatitis patients which increased the infection risks, Rogers said.

"The instruments that came out of the autoclave were horrible," Rogers said, referring to a device used to sterilize tools. "I wouldn't let my nephews play with them out in the dirt. I mean, they were horrible. They had rust on them."

Harrington is accused of 17 violations, including negligence and "being a menace to the public health."