APTN National News
WINNIPEG-About 80 students and staff members at a Winnipeg high school that teaches youth from remote northern First Nations communities will receive HIV and hepatitis test results Monday.
The tests were triggered after a University of Manitoba professor conducted unauthorized diabetes exams at the school last month.
The students and staff are from a number of different grades and all were participating in a health day at the school on May 4, according to Brian Bowman, the lawyer for Southeast Collegiate.
A public health nurse with the Winnipeg Health Authority is expected to present the tests to the impacted students and staff Monday. They will all have to be tested again in six months.
The professor with the university’s pediatrics department used a small pen-like device to test their blood glucose levels by pricking their fingers. While the professor, whose name has not been released, changed the needle used to draw blood, he reused the pen-like device that holds the needle for all the tests, potentially exposing students and staff to HIV and hepatitis B and C.
While officials with the University of Manitoba said the likelihood of infection is extremely low, nobody wanted to take the risk.
“This device should never have been reused. It has been shown that there could be a very small amount of blood remaining in the device after a finger poke,” said University of Manitoba spokesman John Danakas. “It is microscopic, but it is possible that virus may have been transmitted.
Cheryl Rockman-Greenberg, the head of pediatrics at the University of Manitoba, said the professor is now facing a disciplinary investigation. Rockman-Greenberg said the professor was not acting in his capacity as professor for the university when he conducted the finger-prick diabetes tests.
“This is not in his job description, he had never done this before,” she said. “He was under the misconception that he had the credentials. He didn’t consider the finger poke was a real blood test and he had seen it done many times.”
Bowman said the school was also conducting its own internal investigation into the matter.
“The focus has been attending to the health and wellbeing of
students and staff,” said Bowman. “Their efforts to date have been doing their absolute best to ensure that the relevant students are made aware of follow-up testing for their own health and welfare and that won’t change in the coming days.”
Manto Sipi Cree Nation Chief Michael Yellowback said eight of the students involved came from his community.
Yellowback called the incident “a most serious breach” of protocols requiring parents be informed before students undergo similar procedures.
“In respect of the expectations of parents that such protocols will be respected and absolutely adhered to and in respect of the procedures to guard against the transmission of viral disease when administering tests involving the sampling of blood,” said Yellowback, in a statement. “In addition to this breach…if not the ethical and legal obligations of the University of Manitoba and Southeast Collegiate, the affected children have been potentially exposed to at least three very serious viral illnesses.”
