Unsafe treatment for varicose veins may have caused an outbreak of hepatitis C in Liaoning Province, as all those suspected of being stricken by the disease had been previously treated with injections at a local private clinic, local authorities said.

Some 120 patients who received injections for varicose veins at a clinic in Donggang, Liaoning, are thought to have contracted the disease and 95 of them have been hospitalized, said the Xinhua News Agency Tuesday.

The infection might have been caused by doctors who injected many patients with the same syringe, said the report.

A preliminary investigation has not ruled out the possibility of medical malpractice at the clinic. Experts are still not sure how the infection was transmitted, and have tested the medicine used to treat varicose veins at the clinic, the Beijing News reported Wednesday.

The clinic's lead doctor for the treatment of varicose veins, surnamed Xue, denied that he had used the same syringe to inject multiple patients, said the newspaper. Xue was detained by local police on February 2 and the clinic has been closed, local health authorities told Xinhua Tuesday, adding that the clinic was short staffed and underfunded.

The director of the clinic told Xinhua that he didn't know whether Xue made unsafe injections and only recently learned that he had broken rules when purchasing medicines and equipment. 

"I came for treatment of varicose veins after seeing an advertisement on TV, but didn't expect the treatment would give me a disease," a 57-year-old patient, Li Jing, told Xinhua.

The clinic's television ad was illegal as it had not received approval from the city's health bureau before it was aired, said an officer of the local health bureau.

Local authorities started to screen patients who received the varicose veins treatment after receiving a tip-off on January 28, Xinhua reported Tuesday. 

All those who contracted hepatitis C are being treated and given psychological counseling, said local health authorities. 

Global Times