HOUSTON - As many as 1,000 Exxon Mobil employees and 14
residents of a senior citizens home were injected with
fake flu vaccine, authorities said Friday, and the owner
of a home health care company was arrested.
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http://enews.earthlink.net/article/hea?guid=20051028/4362f3c0_3421_13345200510291431125909
Exxon-Mobil Workers Receive Fake Flu Shots
October 29, 2005 1:11 AM EDT
HOUSTON - As many as 1,000 Exxon Mobil employees and 14
residents of a senior citizens home were injected with
fake flu vaccine, authorities said Friday, and the owner
of a home health care company was arrested.
Preliminary tests indicated the syringes were filled with
purified water, U.S. Attorney Chuck Rosenberg said. And no
ill effects from the shots were reported.
But Hermina Palacio, head of the Harris County health
department, recommended that people who received the shots
get tested for blood-borne pathogens such as the AIDS
virus and hepatitis B and C.
Exxon Mobil offered blood tests and counseling to the
employees who received the shots at a health fair Oct.
19-20 at the oil company's complex of refineries and
chemical plants in Baytown, just east of Houston.
Iyad Abu El Hawa, 35, was arrested Thursday. El Hawa,
owner of Comfort & Caring Home Health and two other home
health centers in Houston, was charged with Medicare fraud
in connection with shots given to 14 elderly people at a
home in LaPorte on Oct. 21.
When asked if El Hawa would be charged with giving bogus
shots at the Exxon Mobil fair, prosecutors said only that
their investigation is continuing.
"This is a very callous and disturbing crime," Rosenberg
said. "He purposefully put at risk many, many people."
A call to Comfort & Caring was not immediately returned.
A nurse hired by the company to give the shots notified
the FBI after noticing some irregularities, Rosenberg
said.
The nurse, who was not identified, told authorities that
she thought it odd that company employees did not know
about lot numbers used to track vaccines. The nurse also
became concerned when a Hawa employee said he had pricked
his finger a few times while filling the syringes, and not
to let the doctor at the health fair examine the syringes,
according to the FBI.
The nurse kept two of the syringes and gave them to the
FBI.
Medicare fraud carries up to 10 years in prison and
$250,000 fine.
In May, a nurse in Minnesota, Michelle Torgerson, pleaded
guilty to charges she used diluted flu vaccine left over
from an earlier clinic and gave college students shots at
$20 each.
Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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