Seventy-seven more cases of hepatitis C contamination have been recorded, in an outbreak occurred among patients of the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada. The information was brought out by Nevada health officials.

These last findings raise the number of persons infected with this disease to eighty-five, as there had been eight more persons infected since February. Seven of them are also former patients of the practice, the other one a patient of a practice’s sister clinics, Desert Shadow Endoscopy Center.

The seventy-seven individuals had been among 400 former patients of the clinic and weren’t exposed to other potential risk factors that might have determined the apparition of hepatitis.

It is a sure fact that the individuals analyzed were infested in the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada, because there are records which show their good health condition before receiving medical care from this clinic. "We know they didn't have a positive test before they went to the clinic, and now they're positive," Brian Labus, senior epidemiologist with the Southern Nevada Health District, said, as quoted by FOX News.

The cause of the infection seems to be the reuse of syringes among more than one patient. What is shocking is the fact that this clinic has been left without inspection since 2001, considering the fact that state policies urge that ambulatory medical centers must be officially examined every three years. The agency responsible with licensing excused itself by saying there were no funds for paying inspectors.

The Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada was closed and fined $500,000 and the doctors leading it (Dipak Desai and Eladio Carrera) were suspended.