Sydney dentist's patients warned of viruses including HIV after infection-control review

Australia's New South Wales health authority urged former patients of a Sydney dental clinic to be tested for HIV and other blood-borne viruses including hepatitis.

BBC reported that NSW Health pointed to "poor infection control practices" found at the clinic in a regulatory review. The audit identified gaps in the records of sterilisation cycles for equipment that had been in long-term use at the practice.

The local district health authority will write to all patients who received treatment at the clinic, the agency said. The letter will specify the date range during which patients are advised to seek testing and provide a list of testing centres.

NSW Health described the risk as "low but not zero." Details of which elements of the sterilisation protocol were not met will be shared in full in the patient notification letter.

The clinic's operator said it had cooperated with the regulatory review. The operator added that equipment preparation and sterilisation protocols at the clinic had been reviewed under professional advice.

Infection control in dental clinics is an area in which international dental associations have built strict standards over time. The federal-level Australian health authority said it would examine the cadence of state-level clinic inspections.

The testing window proposed for patients is around six to twelve weeks. That period reflects the typical intervals over which antibodies for the relevant viruses become reliably detectable.

NSW Health also said that home-visit follow-up care would be offered to patients who attended the clinic during the affected dates and have mobility challenges, with priority access for those who request it.

Public health specialists said events like the Sydney case underline the importance of routine clinical inspections. According to those specialists, the outcomes of this case may open the door to a fresh policy review of the state-level inspection schedule.

Dental clinic certification in Australia is handled by the sector regulator. The regulator said it would launch consultations to examine the length of the current certification cycle and the penalty tier applied when protocol shortfalls are identified.