MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — Exeter Hospital say it’s notifying about 500 employees and affiliated clinicians that the state is recommending that they be tested for hepatitis C after an outbreak of the disease at the hospital.

The hospital will be coordinating testing over the next two weeks.

The state public health department has held numerous testing clinics for patients of the hospital, where a former lab worker has been accused of stealing drugs and contaminating needles used on patients in the cardiac catheterization lab. Thirty-two former lab patients have been diagnosed with the same strain of hepatitis C as David Kwiatkowski since the investigation began in May.

The state held its last public clinic for patients last Saturday.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.