Toronto Public Health (TPH) officials have advised people who attended a health fair in Scarborough last week to monitor their health and to followup with a health care provider after contaminated lancets were used during blood glucose testing.
Officials said the lancets were used at the Vision Infinity Foundation’s health fair at the Scarborough Village Recreation Centre on March 25.
“Through the investigation, staff confirmed that blood glucose testing was offered but the lancet/needle was not consistently changed between clients at the health fair,” TPH spokesperson Dr. Herveen Sachdeva said in a statement.
“While certain viruses carried in the blood, such as Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C and HIV, can be passed through re-use of lancets, the chances of these viruses being passed are very low.”
TPH said staff have followed up directly with approximately 20 to 30 people potentially affected by advising them of the potential health risk.
Officials said there is no risk to people who attended the health fair but did not have the blood-sugar test for diabetes.
“As soon as TPH became aware of the matter and as part of the investigation, we followed up directly with the event organizers, their staff and volunteers,” Sachdeva said.
“We are presently scoping out required Infection Prevention and Control (IPAC) training for the organization’s staff and volunteers from this event who may have been involved in this infection control breach.”
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TPH said staff continue to investigate the matter and the event organizers have been cooperative.
Shahid Khandker, president of the Vision Infinity Foundation, told Global News volunteers — who are also Shoppers Drug Mart employees — were brought in to do the testing. He said someone reported they didn’t see the lancet being changed when she was pricked with the lancet.
“They’re all licensed, they’re all authorized people,” Khandker said.
“We of course expect that they know what to do.”
A spokesperson for Loblaw, the parent company of Shoppers Drug Mart, said the company has spoken with Toronto Public Health and is fully cooperating.
“Shoppers Drug Mart stores are independently owned and operated by local Associate owners, who often participate in community activities. We were unaware of the scope of activity at this event and the activities as described are completely unacceptable,” Catherine Thomas, senior director of external communication, wrote in a statement to Global News.
“In any situation, we expect these associates to follow the rules that govern the profession of pharmacy and we take any allegations contrary to that expectation very seriously. We have protocols in place for testing of this sort and have immediately reminded all associates of those protocols and best practices as, from our understanding, they were not followed in this instance.”
Meanwhile, Khandker said they will be looking at conducting increased training to prevent similar incidents from happening in the future.
“We have to identify what are the other steps that we can take to make sure that this doesn’t happen,” he said.
Attendees who are concerned about their health can also call TPH at 416-338-8400 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday to Friday, or 311 after business hours.
— With files from Erica Vella and Nick Westoll
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