Police are investigating how a doctor at a Victorian abortion clinic infected 12 of his women patients with hepatitis C.
Victoria's chief health officer, Dr John Carnie, said the health department became aware last December of three women with the infection who had all undergone procedures at the Croydon Day Surgery, the state's only late term abortion clinic.
Further investigations revealed 12 women who had procedures at the clinic in Melbourne's outer east between June 2008 and December 2009 had contracted the disease.
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"I find it difficult to imagine how an accidental transmission could affect 12 patients," Dr Carnie told reporters in Melbourne on Friday.
Method of transmission unclear
"My main concern at this stage is that I am still unable to explain or to determine the method of transmission of the hepatitis C virus from this doctor to these patients."
The doctor, who authorities say they cannot name for legal reasons, had his registration suspended by the Medical Board of Victoria in February this year.
There is clear epidemiological link between nine of the patients' viruses and the doctor, in one other patient the level of the virus was too low for that link to be made and two of the women have naturally cleared the virus from their blood system.
Dr Carnie said infection control processes at the clinic did not indicate any obvious method of transmission and that was why he referred the matter to Victoria Police.
He said the health department was contacting women who had undergone procedures at the clinic.
