FOURTEEN more women have tested positive for hepatitis C as part of an investigation into a Melbourne anaesthetist suspected of deliberately infecting his patients.

After testing 1800 women, Victoria's Department of Human Services (DHS) today announced that 58 had tested positive to hepatitis C, 35 of whom were known to be genetically linked to the anaesthetist's strain of the disease.



In May, after testing 746 women, the DHS found 44 with the disease.



It has contacted a further 400 women who will be tested and almost 30 New Zealand women are also to be tested.



The New Zealand Ministry of Health tried to track down 55 women who had attended the Croydon Day Surgery in Melbourne's east, where anaesthetist James Latham Peters worked.



The DHS investigation was sparked early this year after 12 women were found to have contracted hepatitis C after undergoing procedures at the Croydon Day Surgery, Victoria's only late-term abortion clinic.



Dr Peters was suspended by the Medical Practitioners Board of Victoria (MPBV) in February and is under police investigation over the scandal.



Victoria's Chief Health Officer John Carnie said the DHS was contacting more women, but also urged anyone who underwent a procedure at the clinic between 2006 and 2009 to contact the DHS.



"We have a team of public health doctors and nurses making calls, explaining why the call is being made and offering to organise a blood test.



"Because of the sensitivity and distress that this can cause, we are being extremely careful to protect the privacy and confidentiality of those involved."



Dr Carnie said women who tested positive were offered immediate referral to a specialist clinic.



Law firm Slater and Gordon is representing at least 30 hepatitis C infected women who are demanding compensation from the Croydon Day Surgery, Dr Peters and possibly the MPBV for allowing him to practise unsupervised.



Dr Peters, a widower and father of two teenage children, has a history of drug abuse and received a suspended jail sentence in 1996 for writing around 100 stolen pethidine prescriptions for himself and his late wife Julia.

Originally published as Abortion patients found with hepatitis C