A former New Hampshire hospital employee was charged Thursday with causing a hepatitis C outbreak involving patients who were treated at the hospital's cardiac catheterization lab.

U.S. Attorney John Kacavas said David Kwiatkowski, 33, a former lab technician at Exeter Hospital, has been charged with fraudulently obtaining drugs and tampering with a consumer product. He was arrested at a hospital in Massachusetts, where he's receiving medical treatment.

Kacavas said Kwiatkowski, originally from Michigan, worked as a traveling medical technician in at least six other states. He had been at Exeter since April 2011.

"This serial infector has been contained and the menace he posed to public health and safety has been removed," Kacavas said.

Investigators believe he stole syringes containing an anesthetic and injected himself with them. He then put another liquid, such as saline, into the syringes, which were later injected into the patients.