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Five people were infected with HIV while receiving dental work in the U.S. in 1993 and later died. The dentist, himself an AIDS patient, had failed to sterilize his utensils properly. Thirteen years later, an investigative program here says such bad practice is still alive in Korea.
Next Tuesday, the MBC current affairs show ¡°PD Diary¡±, equally admired and reviled for breaking news that the cloning scientist Hwang Woo-suk faked his research, will air a program called "Critical Diagnosis! The Dentist's is Dangerous." Reporters from the show traveled to dental surgeries around the country to check on the state of hygiene there. The show¡¯s famously aggressive reporters took instruments being used in dental surgeries and examined them under an electron microscope. "Harmful bacteria, red blood cells, tooth fragments and other foreign substances were found -- it was a hotbed of germs," the producers claim. "The blood and saliva found on the instruments could easily become the cause of a serious infection in the next patient."
The team says they witnessed one implement, a needle for root canal treatment, being reused without being sterilized at all. This is extremely dangerous as germs can enter the bloodstream through the nerve and spread to the heart, brain and rest of the body. There is also the problem of AIDS, hepatitis and tuberculosis sufferers who may conceal their condition from the dentist. The viruses cannot be killed by disinfectant or alcohol swabs but only by thermal sterilization.
One expert says the state of the nation's dental surgeries ¡°is at the point right before the Seongsu Bridge falls," after the collapse of the jerry-built structure in Seoul in 1994 killed 32 people, which has become synonymous with cutting corners. "Luckily there still haven't been any major outbreaks, but if we leave the situation as it is, a major incident will crash down upon us.¡±
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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