Failure to Sterilize and Clean Equipment Potentially Exposed Thousands at New Jersey Facility to HIV, Hepatitis

​More than 3,000 people may have been exposed to bloodborne pathogens from January 2018 to September 2018 at an ambulatory surgery facility in New Jersey, according to a December 26, 2018, CNN article. According to CNN, a New Jersey Department of Health investigation revealed that employees at the surgery center were neither following sterilization procedures nor cleaning medical instruments correctly, potentially exposing patients to bloodborne pathogens including hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and HIV. No infections have been traced to the lapses in protocol and all potentially affected patients have been informed, CNN said.