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India to convert to auto-disable syringes
Thursday, 16 December 2004, 20:30 IST
NEW DELHI: India has decided to gradually bring into use auto-disable syringes, which get locked after first use, for its immunisation programme, said Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Panabaka Lakshmi Thursday.
The first batch of supplies of the safer, though more expensive, syringes was received by the state-owned Hindustan Latex from the US-based Becton Dickinson and Company (BD).
As recommended by WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, "once the supplies become available, only auto-disable syringes would be used at government-run health centres for the immunisation programmes", Lakshmi said at the launch of the auto-disable syringes.
"The aim is to ban the use of glass and disposable syringes as part of our efforts to protect children from unsafe injections," the minister said.
She disclosed that a national injection policy was being formulated to encompass all health delivery systems, be it for curative or immunisation purposes.
"A recent study on the issue of unsafe injections in our country has revealed that over 65 percent of these injections are unsafe due to use of syringes of doubtful sterility or reuse of syringes and needles," the minister said.
Unsafe injections are suspected to be one of the leading causes of the spread of HIV and Hepatitis B and C in the country.
The minister said a detailed infection management and environment plan (IMEP) had been formulated for safe disposal of needles and plastic waste of used syringes.
Said president of BD Medical Worldwide Gary Cohen: "We are devising a system that separates needles into a special bin that can hold up to 400 needles."
"At present, we have no separate programme for collection of syringes but will look into it in the future. We are proposing a centralised collection centre so that the plastic syringes can be recycled," Cohen told IANS.
Under the collaboration, while BD Medical would manufacture the components at their plant in Spain, Hindustan Latex would handle the complete assembly, sterilisation and packaging of the auto-disable syringe 'AutoLok'.
Once the quantum of AutoLok syringes reaches viable numbers, BD Medical is thinking of setting up a manufacturing base in India in collaboration with Hindustan Latex, said Cohen.
Under the terms of the cooperation, the US company would also provide its Indian partner with BD SoloShot technology, said Hindustan Latex managing director M. Ayyappan.
"We estimate a requirement of 290-300 million syringes requirement for the immunisation programme of the government. Each syringe would cost around 
3-4, which is around 20 percent more than the disposable syringes. But the cost apart, injections with AutoLok would help to reduce risk and spread of diseases like HIV," said Ayyappan.
Source: IANS
3-4, which is around 20 percent more than the disposable syringes. But the cost apart, injections with AutoLok would help to reduce risk and spread of diseases like HIV," said Ayyappan.
Source: IANS