A consignment of syringes supplied to the General Hospital here by Kerala Medical Services Corporation Ltd. (KMSCL) was found to be contaminated, exposing patients to the risk of medical device-induced infections.
Hospital sources said fungus-like white particles were found inside many syringes supplied by KMSCL a few days ago.
Uttarakhand company
The syringes were manufactured by an Uttarakhand-based company.
Medical Superintendent of the hospital R. Sreelatha has directed the hospital staff not to use the syringes till further orders are issued. District Medical Officer Gracy Ithaq and Deputy DMO L. Anithakumari have confirmed that the syringes received recently by the hospital were contaminated.
Stop memo issued
Dr. Anithakumari said the Superintendent had already issued a stop memo against using of lot of syringes. Dr. Ithaq said similar contamination was found in another lot of syringes too, received two months, too and the matter was taken up with authorities in Thiruvananthapuram. She said samples of that lot had been sent to the Drugs Controller for laboratory analysis and the authorities were awaiting the test results.
Sources said the year of manufacture on the syringes was 2014 and the expiry date was January 1, 2017.
