January 23, 2004
Yesterday, a Canadian children's hospital said it wanted to get in touch with 2,614 young patients who had been operated on -- between 1990 and 2003 -- by a surgeon with HIV. The hospital wants the patients to be tested for the virus. Ste.-Justine hospital said the doctor had told his supervisor he had HIV in 1991 but that top hospital administrators found out about his condition only two weeks ago. Administrators played down risks to the patients the surgeon had treated, saying only two incidents of patients contracting HIV from physicians during surgery have been recorded in the Western world since the appearance of the virus more than 20 years ago.