• http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/3918567/Hep-C-tracking-hampered-by-privacy-issues

Health authorities have tested more than half the women in New
Zealand potentially exposed to the hepatitis C virus in a Melbourne
abortion clinic, but are being hampered by confidentiality rules which
mean they cannot leave phone messages.

Fifty-six New Zealand women have called the Ministry of Health's
Healthline, concerned they had contracted the virus after James Latham
Paters, an anaesthetist at Melbourne's Croydon Day Surgery Clinic was
now being investigated by police and medical authorities. More than 20
of his patients tested positive to a strain of hepatitis C identical to
his own.

"The Australian Victorian health authorities have contacted 33 New
Zealanders and the bulk of those have been tested," said the ministry's
director of public health, Fran McGrath.

The New Zealand test result figures would be released as part of the
Australian report once the contacting and testing process was
completed. The ministry expected to have a further update in September.

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