About 1,000 patients of a Burlington walk-in clinic are being urged to get tested for blood-borne infections following a six-year infection control lapse involving unsterile needles and multidose vials.
Halton Region Public Health (HRPH) issued an updated public notice on Sept. 18 identifying the Halton Family Health Centre Walk-In Clinic, located at Walkers Line and Dundas Street, as the site of the exposure.
The agency’s investigation, which was initiated following a public complaint, revealed that between Jan. 1, 2019 and July 17, 2025, proper infection prevention and control measures were not consistently followed when administering injections of local anesthetic (freezing) using multidose vials.
The risk, while categorized as low, includes potential exposure to hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and HIV.
“Protecting the health and safety of the public and patients is a top priority,” Dr. Deepika Lobo, Halton’s medical officer of health, said in a press release. “While the risk of transmission is low, we are ensuring impacted individuals have the information they need to complete precautionary testing.”
HRPH assures that the same needle was not reused continuously, but the mishandling of multidose vials, which are intended to be accessed with sterile equipment each time, raises serious concerns about cross-contamination. Procedures where this anesthetic may have been used include minor surgeries, biopsies, joint injections, and IUD insertions.
The agency confirmed to Now Toronto on Monday that approximately 1,000 patients may have been affected, but the exact patient count is unknown.
The public health notice states that the lapse only applies to patients treated in the walk-in portion of the clinic during the specified period. The family physician offices affiliated with the Halton Family Health Centre are not affected.
While Toronto-based infectious disease specialist Dr. Isaac Bogoch says he won’t speculate on the cause, he emphasized that there are many sterilization protocols in place to prevent blood-borne exposures.
“There’s obviously a significant issue if people deviate from those standards,” he told Now Toronto on Monday.
Bogoch stressed that while the incident is concerning, patients should be reassured that reliable testing for hepatitis B, C, and HIV is widely available, and that effective treatments and cures exist.
“If anyone has questions or concerns, whether or not they may have been exposed, every lab in the province can order these tests,” he said.
“Nobody wants to get an infection, but with the medications that we have in Canada, people can live a long, healthy, happy, normal life with a normal life expectancy.”
Patients of the clinic who have specific questions about the lapse are encouraged to call Halton Region Public Health at 311, 905-825-6000 or toll-free 1-866-442-5866.
