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SALT LAKE CITY — Two months after health officials began investigating how a patient at McKay-Dee Hospital contracted hepatitis C, the Utah Department of Health is confirming more patients have since tested positive for the virus.
Angela Dunn, a medical epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stationed at the Utah Department of Health, confirmed that additional cases have been identified but said health officials would not be releasing the final numbers until the investigation is complete.
Hospital officials asked nearly 7,200 patients at McKay-Dee Hospital in Ogden and Davis Hospital and Medical Center in Layton to get tested for hepatitis C in November after a former nurse and a patient both tested positive for the same rare strain of hepatitis C.
Authorities are concerned that the former nurse, identified by Ogden police as Elet Neilson, 49, of Layton, may have exposed patients to the virus.
Chris Dallin, a spokesman for McKay-Dee Hospital, declined to confirm the existence of additional cases until the health department completes its report. That will likely be in February, he said, after hospital officials finish processing the last of the free hepatitis C tests being offered to patients until Jan. 31.
Hepatitis C, a virus that attacks the liver, is transmitted through contact with infected blood, typically by sharing needles.
In recent years, several high-profile hepatitis C outbreaks have involved hospital workers exposing patients to the bloodborne pathogen after tampering with injection equipment to steal narcotics.
In 2009, a Denver hospital technician infected at least 18 patients with hepatitis C after she stole syringes of pain medication and swapped them with used syringes containing saline.
Neilson, the former McKay-Dee nurse now at the center of the investigation, lost her nursing license in December 2014 after admitting to stealing medication from her employer, according to licensing division documents.
Dallin said the former nurse in was fired from McKay-Dee in 2014 after the hospital found evidence she had stolen morphine and Dilaudid, both opioid pain medications.
Authorities expanded the investigation to include patients at Davis Hospital and Medical Center after they learned that Neilson was caught stealing IV Benadryl from the hospital while employed there in 2012 and 2013.
June 2011: Neilson begins working at Davis Hospital and Medical Center.
April 2013: Neilson stops working at Davis Hospital and Medical Center.
October 2013: The Utah Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing publicly reprimands Neilson for stealing Benadryl from her employer from August 2012 to April 2013.
November 2014: The nurse, who has begun working at McKay-Dee, is confronted with evidence she is possibly stealing medications. She confesses and is fired. At this time, the Utah Department of Health is notified that a former patient at McKay-Dee has tested positive for hepatitis C.
December 2014: The licensing division suspends Neilson's license after she admits to stealing opioid painkillers from the hospital between June 2014 and December 2014. She admitted she did this approximately once per week, according to licensing division documents.
January 2015: Neilson is indicted on charges of attempted possession or use of a controlled substance, a third-degree felony, in 2nd District Court. Around this time, the licensing division puts Neilson on probation for five years.
May 2015: Neilson pleads guilty to an amended class A misdemeanor.
September 2015: The Utah Department of Health informs McKay-Dee Hospital that the nurse tested positive for the same strain of hepatitis C as the patient. McKay-Dee officials begin collecting a list of other patients who may have come into contact with the nurse.
October 2015: McKay-Dee sends letters to nearly 4,800 patients informing them that they may have been exposed to hepatitis C.
November 2015: Neilson surrenders her license after a sample tests positive for alcohol, a violation of her probation. Around this time, Davis Hospital and Medical Center sends letters to nearly 2,400 patients informing them that they may also have been exposed to hepatitis C.
Sources: Utah Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing, McKay-Dee Hospital, Davis Hospital and Medical Center, Utah Department of Health, court documents
Health officials are still calling on patients who received letters about their possible exposure to come in for testing.
Chris Johnson, chief nursing officer at Davis Hospital and Medical Center, said in a prepared statement the hospital has had "nearly 50 percent of all those exposed tested."
Dunn estimated the response rate was closer to 35 percent overall. That's still "pretty low," she said.
She warned that hepatitis C usually lies dormant for years, but it can lead to severe liver damage, liver cancer and liver failure if left untreated.
Dunn said the additional patients identified have the same strain of hepatitis C as the former nurse and the first patient, lending more credibility to the possibility that the infections come from a common source. Genotype 2b is found in about 8 percent of people with hepatitis C, Dunn said. Email: dchen@deseretnews.com Twitter: DaphneChen_
