More vets test positive for viral infections as VA buries statistics on contaminated equipment infections in maze of web pages.

by Larry Scott, VA Watchdog dot Org

The saga of the VA's contaminated endoscopic equipment has taken many twists and turns ... but none so outrageous as this.

The VA used to post the latest statistics on how many veterans tested positive for what type of infection (hepatitis B, hepatitis C, HIV) on this page of their site.  Here is a look at that page when VA posted all information in one place.

Now, that page is full of self-congratulatory public relations spin with links to the three facilities where veterans are testing positive for infections after having received endoscopic procedures with potentially contaminated equipment.

To find the latest statistics ... a reader must click the link to each VA facility site ... then click another link to an "endoscopic" statistics page ... then add up the statistics from all three sites to determine the latest infection tally.

We did the math and in the last week five more veterans have tested positive ... with the total now standing at 44.

This is as close to a "dirty trick" as it gets.  What about the new openness and transparency in government that we were promised?

The VA's Public Affairs office, headed by Tammy Duckworth, is deliberately trying to downplay this incident by making it extremely difficult to find the latest infection statistics. 

In fairness, Duckworth has only been on the job a few days, but it's time for her to get to work and whip her department into shape instead of running around the country on speaking trips seeking face time on the tube.

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TOPICS: veterans, veterans' benefits, VA, Department of Veterans' Affairs, contaminated equipment, colonoscopy, endoscopic, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, HIV, Tammy Duckworth