Amid hepatitis scare in Nevada, 5 nurses hand in licenses

clipped from blogs.usatoday.com A week after 40,000 Nevadans learned that unsanitary injections might have infected them with hepatitis C or the AIDS virus, five certified nurse anesthetists surrendered their licenses today until authorities learn how and why a surgical center and several clinics reused syringes and vials for four years, the Las Vegas Sun reports. The five nurses worked at the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada, where the nation's largest hepatitis C scare began. Officials said the outbreak may be "the tip of the iceberg." Dr. Dipak Desai is the majority owner of the endoscopy center. The Las Vegas Review-Journal has more about the investigation The paper writes the state ranks among the worst in the nation for numbers of doctors and nurses per capita, the number of uninsured patients, and the number of unvaccinated children.