The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Syringe inventor injects safety in hospitals

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 04, 2009
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Syringe inventor injects safety in hospitals

Staff Reporter

State institutions top in safe injections

Bangalore: Government hospitals, largely frequented by the poor, may not exactly have state-of-the-art medical facilities. But the patients at least have access to safe injections as all the state-run hospitals in Karnataka have been using auto disable (AD) syringes for the past three years.

This has been certified by the U.K.-based charity Safe Point, which spearheaded a campaign across the country last year propelling the Union Government to make use of auto disable syringes mandatory in all Central Government hospitals.

Grim statistics

However, of the five billion medical injections administered in India every year, 62 per cent are unsafe. According to World Health organisation (WHO), nearly three lakh people die in India every year as a result of unsafe and contaminated medical injections.

Revealing these facts at a press conference on Tuesday, Marc Koska, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Safe Point Trust, lauded Karnataka for setting a precedent by becoming the only State after Kerala to use AD syringes for three years. Mr. Koska is also the inventor of non-reusable K1 syringes.

While revealing that 30 companies manufactured AD syringes in India, Mr. Koska said these companies supplied a total 75 million syringes to Karnataka for use in government hospitals.

Discussed

Urging hospitals in the private sector to switch over completely to AD syringes, Mr. Koska said: “We discussed the matter of creating awareness on use of AD syringes with State and Central health officials. While States of Maharashtra, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Orissa and Bihar have begun the switch, other States are gradually coming forward. All Central Government hospitals in Delhi as well as AIIMS have started using AD syringes.”

“While 1.5 billion syringes are manufactured in India, the demand is five billion a year. The deficit is made up by reuse (of syringes) resulting in lakhs of people dying,” he said.

Presentation

Making a presentation on the rampant reuse of syringes in some countries including Indonesia, Pakistan, China and India, Mr. Koska said: “The worst affected are rag pickers and civic workers who get pricked by used contaminated needles at garbage dumps.”

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