New Hampshire attorney says med tech spread hepatitis in 2008

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. -- A New Hampshire attorney says a client contracted hepatitis C from a traveling hospital worker two years earlier than has been previously alleged he began spreading the disease.

Portsmouth attorney Michael Rainboth represents five patients who were allegedly infected by medical technician David Kwiatkowski, who's been charged with tampering with needles and infecting at least 31 people.

Rainboth told the Portsmouth Herald that his newest client, a 65-year-old Vietnam veteran, was infected in 2008 at the Baltimore VA Medical Center and that the hospital is taking responsibility. Prosecutors have said the earliest evidence that Kwiatkowski tested positive for hepatitis C was in 2010.

The hospital on its website says 168 patients had procedures involving Kwiatkowski in 2008, and that it's offered free hepatitis testing to 51 of them.

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Information from: Portsmouth Herald, http://www.seacoastonline.com