FDA Warns Against Sharing Single-Patient Insulin Pens

The Food and Drug Administration is warning health care professionals against using insulin pens designed for use in a single patient in multiple patients, which can increase the risk of spreading HIV, hepatitis, and other diseases.

Insulin pens are commonly used to deliver insulin to diabetics. The pen-shaped devices carry either a reservoir or a cartridge containing several doses of insulin, which are injected through a disposable needle. All insulin pens are approved for use in single patients

However, the FDA said recent incidents at two unnamed hospitals have involved insulin pens being used on multiple patients, although the disposable needles on the devices were changed. More than 2,000 patients were injected with improper use of the insulin pens, the FDA said.

Patients who were exposed to shared insulin pens at the two hospitals have been contacted and offered testing for hepatitis and HIV. Some exposed patients have reportedly tested positive for the hepatitis C virus, although it is not known if the virus was spread as a result of insulin pen sharing.

Recently, the misuse of single-patient insulin pens on multiple patients in an Army insulin needle program was blamed for infecting 16 soldiers at the William Beaumont Army Medical Center in El Paso, Texas, which also serves nearby Fort Bliss, Texas.

The improper use of the pens in the Army insulin program took place between August 2007 and January 2009, Army officials said.

The FDA said it is working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and medical profession organizations to address infection control issues related to the improper use of insulin pens.

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