WHO urges to switch to one-use syringes by 2020
Accidental transmission of deadly infectious diseases may be prevented with a united and global effort
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has recently launched a new policy on injection safety to try to stem the spread of deadly infectious diseases through reusing syringes. It is believed that millions could be protected if all healthcare programmes were to switch to using one-use “smart syringes”, according to a WHO press release.
Transmission of infection through unsafe injection practices is widespread; a hepatitis C outbreak in the US state of Nevada in 2007 was traced to a single physician who reused syringes when administering anaesthetic. And in 2014, more than 200 people living near the Cambodian city of Battambang tested positive for HIV, most likely due to similar circumstances, according to the release.
These one-use syringes will either block the plunger from being pulled back out, or retract the needle, rendering it useless. While costs are a concern – the one-use syringes could cost twice as much as normal ones – the WHO believes that this switch could be cheaper than treatment in the long run, the BBC reported.
“This will hopefully help eliminate the 1.7 million new hepatitis B cases, the 300,000 hepatitis C cases and the 35,000 HIV cases every year, and all those we don't have figures for, such as Ebola and Marburg,” Dr Selma Khamassi, the head of the WHO team for injection safety, told the BBC.
“Injection safety is, I think, the most cost-effective way to prevent all these diseases,” Dr. Kamassi said. “If we compare the price of most expensive syringes to the cost of treatment for an HIV case, or a hep C case, there is no comparison.”
This article first appeared in our April 2015 issue of Global Health and Travel.
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