Friday, May 20 2005 16:37 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kolkata: Doctors across the country have begun a mass movement on injection safety in a bid to save thousands of lives lost every year to unsafe management of the pricking needle.

With the risk of serious diseases like hepatitis B and C as well as AIDS growing by the day, medicos have identified injuries and infection from used needles as one of the prime reasons behind the menace.

Each year, 16,000 million injections are administered in developing and transitional countries with India accounting for 4.2 billion. The concern, therefore, is for occupational risk to health workers, patients and indirect risk via the environment to the community," says Satish B Kaipilyawar, project coordinator of Hyderbad-based NGO PATH, which is pioneering the cause of safe injections in the country.

WHO estimates that unsafe injection resulted in about 1.6 lakh new HIV infections, 16 million Hepatitis B and about 4.7 million hepatitis C infections.

About two-thirds of injections given in India were estimated to be unsafe, according to an IndiaClen Program Evaluation Network (IPEN) report for the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Taking cognisance of the seriousness of the issue, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) dedicated the latest volume of its journal to injection safety and has launched a national campaign on it.

It might seem like a very small thing to a layman but it has emerged as a major issue in healthcare. Only immunisation injections amount to 210 million in India and that is a staggering figure," says IMA national President Sudipto Roy.

While hundreds of healthcare personnel and waste handlers injure and infect themselves during handling of used injections not packed in puncture proof containers, a large quantity of syringes not managed safely were re-circulated in the market risking the life of users, he says.

Burning or incineration of syringes also emitted pollutants called furans that could cause serious illness, Kaipilyawar says.

The entire issue of injecting patients with medication has also come under scanner with doctors questioning if that was the most rational way of treatment.

A study conducted by PATH shows that 70 per cent of injections prescribed were irrational, unnecessary and could be substituted by oral drugs. The commonest injections prescribed were antibiotics, minerals, vitamins and pain killers," Kaipilyawar says.

Senior Technical advisor for immunisation at Becton Dickinson India Pvt Ltd Saurabh Sharma says auto disable (AD) syringes were the best bet for safe injection practice as there was minimal or no chance of reuse of such syringes.

"WHO, UNICEF and UNFPA have issued a joint statement urging countries to use only AD syringes for immunisation after 2003. This not only looks at safety but also ensures minimal wastage of vaccines," he says.