Taiwan clinic rejects link between hepatitis C cluster and its medical procedures

Antai Songhe Clinic in Banqiao District, New Taipei, has been ordered to suspend all operations after an acute viral hepatitis C cluster. The New Taipei Department of Health also imposed a NT$300,000 fine and referred the physician in charge for disciplinary action.

Clinic director and physician Sun Hao-yang said the clinic’s infection-control procedures had shortcomings. He insisted, however, that staff had never used the same needle to inject different patients and argued that the infections should therefore not be linked to the clinic’s medical procedures.

Sun said genetic sequencing showed a high degree of similarity among the cases, but claimed that the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control had not clearly established when or where the infections occurred. He said there was no definitive evidence connecting the cases to the clinic.

“

The clinic’s infection-control procedures did have shortcomings, but we never used the same needle to inject different patients.

The health department plans to trace and follow up with people who visited the clinic during the previous year. Officials also said the injections given at the clinic were not all nutritional injections, and that most of those treatments were self-paid services.

When reporters visited the clinic, its metal gate was closed and media gathered outside. A notice said the clinic had violated several infection-control measures and would suspend all business until it separately announced any resumption of general medical services.

“

Although the genetic sequences showed a high degree of similarity, the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control could not clearly prove when or where the infections occurred.