Nashville, Tenn.-based Vanderbilt Health is notifying an unspecified number of patients who may have been exposed to HIV, hepatitis B and C during endoscopy procedures at a clinic on the health system's main campus, FOX affiliate WZTV reported Oct. 11.
"We recently discovered an issue in how a solution was administered through the scope during a limited number of endoscopy procedures at the Vanderbilt Clinic," a Vanderbilt spokesperson said in a statement to Becker's. "We immediately corrected the issue and reported it to the Tennessee Department of Health. We are in the process of notifying patients who had an endoscopy procedure and may have been affected."
The health system determined the issue was "limited in scope" and that the risk of infection to patients "is very low," the statement said.
The spokesperson did not confirm a specific number of patients who may have been exposed, though said the issue has affected less than 4% of endoscopy patients over the past six months.