Surgery patients may have been exposed to HIV

Hundreds of surgical patients in the Edmonton region are being tested for HIV.

Global News has learned that Alberta Health Services is contacting some patients, warning they may have contracted the disease from a medical professional who was in the operation room during their procedures.

The health care worker apparently notified Alberta Health Services a few weeks ago to let them know they had tested positive for both HIV and Hepatitis C.

The province's senior medical of health says a risk assessment has been done and the chances of patients contracting the virus is low, but they are notifying about 200 patients as a precaution.

The staff member reportedly worked in the operating room at a number of different hospitals across the city, including the University of Alberta Hospital from about the middle of 2006 to March 2009.

The worker is no longer working with AHS and isn't living in the province.

Patients who have had surgeries with the individual in question are currently being contacted, but again, Global News is told that the risk of infection is low.

Global News spoke to one woman who received one of those phone calls the other day.

She had a back surgery in may of 2008 at the U of A hospital.

She was advised to get tested, and was told that she would receive a requisition within three weeks. And while she was told the risk is low, she is definitely very concerned as she awaits for those results.