Recently we heard of hundreds of people receiving injections with tainted medications, now, health officials are facing a quiet threat that was supposed to die with the advent of the disposable syringe more than 50 years ago: dirty needles. We trust the medical professionals when they recommend shots to prevent disease, or to aid our distress with a medical problem we may be suffering from. For many, that faith and trust has been violated.

According to an article in USA Today, since 2001, more than 150,000 patients nationwide have been victims of unsafe injection practices, and two-thirds of those risky shots were administered in just the past four years, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The errors led to at least 49 disease outbreaks, a USA TODAY examination shows, and a trail of victims suffering with potentially life-threatening bacterial infections, such as MRSA, and sometimes fatal viruses, such as hepatitis..

"People think, 'This can't happen in the United States; this is a Third World thing,' ""Unfortunately, it happens on a regular basis, and it affects a lot of people, families, communities."

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