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| N.J. Prisons Notify Inmates of Hepatitis C Infection |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 10/08/2002 |
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State prison officials have told hundreds of inmates they are infected with the hepatitis C virus after withholding the information for a year, according to a published report. According to a medical audit, more than 1,100 prisoners were informed following a July investigation by The Philadelphia Inquirer. Another 21 inmates were released from prison before they could be told. State officials and the prisons' private medical vendor, Correctional Medical Services, are trying to contact them. The newspaper originally found one New Jersey inmate receiving treatment for hepatitis C, while prison doctors denied treatment to some inmates and halted it for others who began prior to incarceration. State prisons are not currently treating any inmate for hepatitis, the newspaper reported Sunday. State Prison Commissioner Devon Brown ordered the mass notification. ''If an individual has been diagnosed with a disorder, it is essential, it is fundamental ... that the physician informs the person,'' Brown said. The move came too late for inmate Jose Lopez, who learned he had the potentially fatal disease on July 23, two months after he developed bleeding ulcers, a sign of liver cirrhosis. Doctors noted that Lopez was infected in 1992. ''I don't even know if I'm making it out of prison,'' Lopez told the Inquirer. ''I'm devastated.'' Correctional Medical Sevices, whose contract will expire at the end of this month, said some inmates had been informed prior to the Inquirer investigation, but that had not been noted in their medical file. Art Caplan, a medical ethicist at the University of Pennsylvania, said failing to tell any patient about a potentially life-threatening condition violates standard medical practice. ''The key moral issue is that every person, including a prisoner, has a right to know his health status,'' Caplan said. ''It's very disappointing to see this going on in the 21st century. If it was done out of indifference, it's immoral. If it was done out of incompetence, it's incredible.'' |
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