Very low risk'

Very low risk'

Queensland's Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young says 235 people might have had the tainted equipment.

"It's very unfortunate of course that this HIV happened but fortunately the risk to those people is very, very low," she said.

"It's not zero, there is certainly a risk there but it's very low.

"The risk is that they might have been exposed to one of the blood borne viruses, if one of the people that that equipment had originally been used on had one of those viruses."

Queensland Health says 33 patients were treated before the instruments were cleaned.

All of them have now been contacted and the results of their blood tests should be known by Friday.

"These people don't know that they've got any virus but they've let us test them for it just to make sure," Ms Young said.

A thorough investigation has been launched into the sterilisation failure, but early inquiries indicate it was a case of human error.

Queensland's Health Minister Paul Lucas says the sterilisation failure is an unacceptable mistake and he says Bundaberg staff could be disciplined.