Local Doc Thought To Have Spread Hep C

The Health Department is urging 4,500-odd people who have been treated by the same local doctor to get [tested for hepatitis C] after three of his patients were infected last August. Those who have already been diagnosed all received intravenous anesthesia from the unidentified doc, who has been [licensed since 1977](http://www.amny.com/news/local/newyork/am-hep0615,0,2190297.story?coll=am-topheadlines) and works out of 10 outpatient locations in Manhattan. The health department, which has issued letters to those at risk, declined to comment on whether the doctor has hepatitis C himself, but he will not be practicing during the investigation (though his license has not been suspended). A state Health Department spokeswoman, Claudia Hutton, said that the doctor is cooperating and that it has yet to be established that he’s done anything wrong. [Hep C](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hepatitis_c) is spread by [contact with infected blood](http://www.nysun.com/article/56619) and ultimately causes liver damage and cirrhosis; it is incurable.