The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources Bureau for Public Health is urging a wider pool of former Raleigh Heart Clinic to get tested for bloodborne illnesses after four new cases of hepatitis C were detected.
In March, the agency warned roughly 2,300 patients who received a stress test at the Beckley, W.Va.-based clinic that they may be at risk for hepatitis and HIV after 12 cases of viral hepatitis were linked to the clinic.
Originally, only people who visited Raleigh Heart Clinic between March 1, 2012, and March 27, 2015, were warned of possible exposure. Now, the DHHR says the four new hepatitis cases were found in patients who visited the clinic prior to March 1, 2012.
"At this time, we are expanding the patient notification to recommend, that as a precaution, all persons who received a stress test at the Raleigh Heart Clinic with injectable medications prior to March 1, 2012, should consider getting tested for hepatitis B, hepatitis C and [HIV]," said Rahul Gupta, MD, commissioner and state health officer.