Students In Botched Diabetes Tests To Get HIV Results, Dozens of students at a Winnipeg aboriginal high school are waiting for results today from HIV and hepatitis tests they had to undergo following an improperly administered diabetes test. About 80 students and staff at Southeast Collegiate were improperly tested for diabetes last month by a University of Manitoba faculty member who pricked their fingers with the same glucometer pen.

The professor, who is with the pediatrics and child health department at the university’s medical school, did replace the lancet – the pricking needle – for each person. However, the pen itself is not meant to be used by more than one person, university officials told CBC News last week.

That has raised concerns among health officials of a slight risk of the students and staff contracting blood-borne viruses.

The affected students and staff members are being tested for HIV and hepatitis B and C. The first group of about 50 students and staff are expected to receive their test results on Monday.

“As a parent, I’ve had sleepless nights, [wondering] how significant [of an] impact will it be if their tests become positive,” Michael Yellowback, the Manto-Sipi Cree First Nation chief whose teenaged son is being tested, said on the weekend.

But even if his son’s test results come back negative for HIV and hepatitis on Monday, Yellowback said all the affected students and staff must be tested again in six months.

“We have to wait another six months before the second round of tests have to be done,” he said. “That’s another six months of anxiety that we have to endure.”

Southeast Collegiate is a boarding school for aboriginal students, owned and operated by nine northern Manitoba First Nations. A number of the affected students’ parents have travelled to Winnipeg to be with their children when the test results come in on Monday.

The faculty member who administered the diabetes test had been invited to Southeast Collegiate to speak to students as part of a diabetes awareness day on May 4. However, that person was not a physician and was not authorized by the university to perform blood sugar tests, according to officials.

Dr. Cheryl Rockman-Greenberg, head of the university’s pediatrics and child health department, said the faculty member has since been disciplined.