Toronto Public Health is advising those who underwent blood glucose testing at a Scarborough health fair last week to follow up with their doctor after the needles used to do the testing were "not consistently changed."

In a statement emailed to CTV News, Toronto Public Health spokesperson Lenore Bromley confirmed that a complaint was filed following the Vision Infinite Foundation’s health fair at the Scarborough Village Recreation Centre, located at 3600 Kingston Road, on March 25.

After further investigation, public health said it was determined that the lancets/ needles used to do blood sugar testing were mistakenly reused.

“While certain viruses carried in the blood, such as Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, and HIV can be passed through re-use of lancets, the chances of these viruses being passed are very low,” Bromley said in the statement sent to CTV Sunday.

She added that there is no risk to people who attended the fair but did not undergo a blood sugar test for diabetes.

“TPH staff have followed up directly with those potentially affected through calls and also sent letters to notify them in writing of the matter and potential health risk. As a precautionary measure, TPH recommended for those individuals to follow up with a health care provider,” Bromley added.

CTV’s infectious disease specialist Dr. Neil Rau weighed in on the incident and also said the risk of infection appears to be low.

"Just being exposed to Hepatitis B doesn’t mean you’re going to come down with it. At most, about one in 30 people who are exposed to Hepatitis B actually develop the disease," he said. 

"So you have to have two bad things happen. You have to have somebody with Hepatitis B use the needle and then you have to have somebody who is exposed to Hepatitis B, actually come down with it. So you’ve already got to multiple two low-risk events, which means you are looking at a very low chance of something bad happening." 

Public health, Bromley said, has contacted the event organizers, as well as their staff and volunteers, to investigate what type of training those involved have received surrounding infection control.

“The event organizers have been extremely cooperative with TPH throughout the investigation,” Bromley said.

Those who attended the fair can contact Toronto Public Health at 416-338-8400 for more information.