As many as 150 child cancer patients have been infected with hepatitis C in Russia’s Far East in an outbreak that parents and officials say is the result of unhygienic medical practices, BBC Russia has reported. Officials in the Amur region said parents had been ringing the alarm about a hepatitis С outbreak in the Blagoveshchensk children’s cancer hospital since 2012. Local officials suspected that the reuse of gloves and catheters has infected dozens of children as young as six months old in 2018 alone.

The latest victim count exceeds 100 children, BBC Russia cited as saying an unnamed source in Russia’s Investigative Committee, which has opened a criminal case into hygiene violations. Parents estimate that more than 150 children may have been infected. “Every other child in that ward has this diagnosis and no one asks themselves: Where is it coming from?” one parent was quoted as saying in a 2017 letter to President Vladimir Putin.

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