Statistics suggest that injections with dirty needles are responsible for 20-million hepatitis B infections and 260 000 HIV infections worldwide every year, Medinfo said on Thursday.
Although the World Health Organisation has made good progress in its quest to encourage the use of new needles for vaccination purposes since 1999, vaccinations account for only 10% of injections.
The role of unscreened blood transfusions and unsafe medical injections in the transmission of infectious diseases, such as hepatitis and HIV/Aids, has come under the spotlight, said Dr Stephen Toovey of Medinfo.
Toovey said that, according to an article in The Washington Post, the situation was particularly grave in Aids-burdened countries where unsafe sex has been blamed for 90% of HIV/Aids transmissions, with unsafe medical injections and tainted blood supplies accounting for the balance.
”In consequence, many so-called authorities on the pandemic as well as donors and health ministries have considered safe health care as ‘discretionary’ when promoting policies and distributing international aid funding.”
Toovey said the result was a general failure to prevent HIV infections arising from non-sterile equipment or infected donor blood.
”Instead, doctors, nurses and health workers are unknowingly transmitting HIV through unscreened blood transfusions and un-sterile syringes to at least half-a-million men, women and children every year, and are themselves at risk of occupational HIV exposure.”
Aiming at redress, the WHO had urged health authorities across the globe to limit the use of medicinal injections and has embarked on a campaign to educate patients and doctors about the risk of injections.
Toovey said strong support for the WHO initiatives was anticipated from the United States at an international Aids conference, scheduled to take place in Kenya during September this year. – Sapa