By Dr Ananya Mandal, MD
Over the last few months there has been a rise in hepatitis C cases at an abortion clinic in Melbourne. In a new development 13 new cases have been diagnosed. This brings the total count to 35. The Victorian police are investigating the source of the infections. The link between the Croydon Day Surgery and the cluster was first revealed in April, when there were only 12 cases.
Dr. James Latham Peters, a practicing anesthesiologist at the clinic, has been alleged to have infused the infections in his patients following which his license was confiscated by the Department of Health in February.
The health authorities are tracking down 2,200 women who visited the clinic since 2006. They were recommended to get checked against for hepatitis C infection. Interestingly the strain of the virus found in these 35 women is same as that of Dr. Peters himself. In March, Dr. Peters was deferred by the Medical Practitioners Board. Earlier in 1996, he was charged for having forged as many as 100 prescriptions.
A class action against Dr. Peters is on the way. Slater and Gordon medical law expert Paula Shelton is representing those involved and says a lot more people may be affected. She said, “From the numbers we initially had, the numbers of people who've been tested and the number of people who were affected, certainly suggested that we would have a lot more… I guess from the point of view of the legal action, it just becomes more and more improbable that there's an innocent explanation for these infections.” She also called for investigation into such likely cases at other clinics where Dr. Peters practiced. “This was a doctor who worked at a number of clinics as indeed many anesthetists do, and yet only the patients of this clinic have been identified as being at risk…Now there has to be a reason for that, and my clients ask me every day what that is and I don't have anything to tell them,” she said.