St. Louis Va Dental Disease Exposure

[gdsnide]

OK I received a letter from the St.Louis VA saying " I may have been exposed to Hepatitis B,Hep C & HIV

Letter said to come in & get a blood test if one wants & "Don't worry" as its no big deal problem as someone wasn't cleaning Dental Tools correcttly & you may have been exposed to these diseases

I was at the VA Hospital today & my Daughter called me & told me about the certified letter I had received & what it said

I had a blood test & they said they would have the results in about 2 weeks

Everyone very reassuring that its very unlikely anyone has anything so stay calm

Find article about this below Not sure what is going on but sounds rather serious to me....Was told I could file a claim or a tort claim on this but guess that depends on the blood tests

Also, we're to be retested in 6 months

Does anyone know if it's possible this stuff won't show up in a blood test & one still has it?.....GARY

Veterans receiving dental care may have been exposed to ...

Jun 29, 2010 ... (KMOV)-- More than 1800 veterans in the St. Louis area may have been exposed to potentially life threatening diseases at the John Cochran VA Hospital. ... The veterans administration is contacting veterans from Missouri ...

www.kmov.com/.../Veterans-receiving-dental-care-may-have-been-exposed-to-potentially-deadly-diseases-97431474.html - 2 hours ago

[Chu Lai69]

Saturday July 10, 2010 10:45 AM Notified via Phone from VA that my first blood tests came back negative, thank you Jesus. My second test is this Wednesday I will keep you posted on those results.

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

[gdsnide]

OK

Here it is July 10th & I haven't heard a damn thing back from the VA

But, I was there the same day as I received the letter so what ever that means guess I'll just wait until I hear something

Reason I wrote this is because T Bird said she heard from them today but I haven't & I believe I was down there before her

I guess I'll call them Monday & see what's up

GARY

[gdsnide]

T Bird

I just talked to my Daughter & she said that my time to get retested is in 6 months

Is that the VA or a Private Doctor that is retesting U in a week?

Thanks

GARY

[SLEDGE]

I have 3 doctors who keep an eye on the VA blood tests for me.

At least one will duplicate anything that the VA does.

However, the VA never tells us what they are checking for except for the standard stuff.

They take anywhere from 2 to 8 viles of blood and a pee sample.

I don't know why or care why.

I'm covered.

In my catchment area there are 3 of us vets who have the same basic identifier information.

In the past the jerks have practically thrown me off of the lease until they discovered they had the wrong dude.

More than once.

I've never met one of the other vets but, I suspect he is quite a character.

The 3rd one is related to me.

Even if I was the only poor slob with my info, I could never trust their lab work.

Too dang many years of uncalled-for BS.

Sorry, drifting again.

" “V.A. is in the process of standardizing the standard operating procedures for the cleaning of all reusable medical equipment across the country.” "

That is the most absurd statement I have ever heard...

sledge

[Tbird]

Based on what they told me, the test and retest are based on when you were "possibly" exposed. So it is 6 months out from that, I had my first July 6th (notified by VA July 10th negative) I go for my next test July 14. I believe they said my "possible" exposure was in Jan 2010. They took 5 or 6 tubes of blood.

Now, the questions

1. Do I ask to be tested again in a few months just to be on the safe side.

2. Do I go to a private lab and pay to get tested after the VA does the second test, just to be sure they did the testing correctly.

T Bird

I just talked to my Daughter & she said that my time to get retested is in 6 months

Is that the VA or a Private Doctor that is retesting U in a week?

Thanks

GARY

[retiredat44]

you really need to ask doctors these questions..

IMHO