Earlier this year, the medical world was taken over by a generalized state of panic, as it was revealed that vials of heparin were contaminated with substances such as oversulfated chondroitin sulfate (OSCS). The CDC – Center for Disease Control and Prevention – have made public the results regarding the investigation they conducted, in collaboration with academic researchers, concerning the heparin contamination incident. The report issued by the CDC gives detailed information about the different effects that contaminated heparin had had on the patients it was administered to, but it also showed how the results of laboratory testing linked the patient symptoms to OSCS.

According to CDC officials, the investigation was conducted for two main reasons. The first and most obvious one was the protection of public health. The second was to inform people about what exactly had happened with the heparin. Underlying reasons were preventing such an unfortunate incident from taking place again. The CDC’s transparency bodes well for them and may prompt increase confidence from the part of the public in at least some components of the American health care system.

The paper released by them, except for revealing the issues with the heparin contamination, is also a broad and intricate description of these cases, which have occurred all over the country. Dr. Patel with the CDC stated that “our paper is really much more focused on the clinical aspects and epidemiology. So in addition to being a description of cases we're aware of, we describe the timing of cases relative to other events and also the clinical manifestations of the cases, which hasn't been previously summarized.”