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Chanute Colonoscopy Patients Put At Risk For Disease

A hospital in Chanute is asking 244 patients who received colonoscopies to get tested for communicable diseases; the southeast hospital says its equipment wasn't properly cleaned and disinfected.

Neosho Memorial Regional Medical Center in Chanute says the risk that anyone was infected with hepatitis B, hepatitis C or HIV is extremely low - but not zero - so it is encouraging patients who have received colonoscopies since early January to get tested for those diseases.

The hospital says the endoscope used wasn't properly flushed according to the manufacturer's cleaning instructions.

It says the scopes were immersed in a sterilizing agent before being used on each new patient, so the chance that any diseases will be transmitted through the equipment is very low.