Patients getting a colonoscopy at the Miami Veterans Affairs Healthcare System over the last five years may have been exposed to hepatitis and HIV because of unsanitized equipment used during the procedures.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs sent letters out to more than 3,000 people this week who may have had a colonoscopy with the tainted equipment between 2004 and 2009. The tubing for the scopes were rinsed but not disinfected, CNN reported.

The Miami VA was flooded with thousands of calls within a day of the letter being sent.

Health officials say the risk of patients contracting hepatitis and HIV from the scopes is low.

Dr. Mark Lawson, a gastroenterologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, NY, told the Miami Herald that infection would be unlikely unless there was a cut or tear in the patient's intestinal tract.