Mother searches for answers after public health says unsterile needles used at Ontario clinic

TORONTO — Christine Lavalle feels like she’s trapped in a nightmare.

She found out on social media last week that her child might have been exposed to blood-borne infections at a Burlington walk-in clinic after public health identified the use of unsterile needles over the span of more than six years.

“How did this happen?” she said.

That’s the question plaguing some patients who visited Halton Family Health Centre Walk-in Clinic between Jan. 1, 2019 and July 17, 2025, and learned on Wednesday that if they received local anesthesia, they could have been exposed to hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV.

Halton Region Public Health said that accounts for approximately 1,000 patients.

Last spring, Lavalle said she took her child to the walk-in with a forehead gash after an incident on the pla