About 500 at 2 Valley hospitals may have been exposed in hepatitis C case

PHOENIX - Officials say nearly 500 people have been identified as being exposed to the hepatitis C virus at two Valley hospitals.

A spokeswoman for the hospitals says approximately 270 patients from Maryvale Hospital and less than 200 patients from Arizona Heart Hospital were exposed to the virus by a healthcare technician .

The Maricopa County Department of Public Health confirmed to ABC15 that healthcare technician David Kwiatkowski worked at Arizona Heart Hospital and Maryvale Hospital.

Kwiatkowski is accused of injecting himself with pain medication at hospitals and then returning the contaminated syringes that later infected patients with hepatitis C, a liver disease.

The spokeswoman says both hospitals will start sending out certified letters by July 30 and plan to have the mailing completed by mid-week.

She says that within the first 24 hours there were less than a dozen inquiries on the case and many phone calls and emails were general inquiries about hepatitis C.

Federal investigators say Kwiatkowski infected at least 30 patients in New Hampshire but may have exposed thousands more at facilities in Arizona, Georgia, Kansas, Maryland, New York, and Michigan.

Kwiatkowski was employed through a temporary staffing agency and worked in Arizona in 2009 and 2010.