Sunday 30 October 2011

THE SELF-DESTRUCTING SYRINGE


I assume everyone knows what HIV/AIDS are. But did anyone know that in many places such as Tanzania, nurses and doctors are using syringes on infected individuals, then using them on children, infants and other non-infected people?

The fact that something as irresponsible as this has been happening for years and has gone on unnoticed, is beyond disturbing. Countries reusing syringes may not cause an interference in your life, but this practice DOES cause an interference in the millions of lives infected and lost.

Marc Koska, the designer of an auto-disable syringe and founder of a charity called Safe-Point, went to the Tanzanian government with video (The Guardian) of a nurse injecting a man who had HIV and syphilis with antibiotics – and then re-using the needle on a one year-old baby.

It took years of studying the problem before Marc Koska created his design, in which the plunger of the syringe breaks as soon as it is pulled back to be re-used.

The stakes are higher than most people imagine. Some 1.3 million people die every year because of the re-use of syringes, according to the World Health Organization.


PASS THE MESSAGE ON


New packet

NEW PACKET
.............................................................................................

Every time you have an injection you have the right to a sterile syringe from a new packet. Make sure you insist your healthcare provider takes the syringe from a new packet, if you don’t see it being taken from a packet – it is your right to ask.


Used once

USED ONCE
.............................................................................................

Once the syringe has been used on you, it must not be used again,

if it is an AD (Auto Disable) syringe it will have a mechanism that disables it after injecting.

If it is a regular syringe insist that this is broken in front of you.


Safely disposed

SAFELY DISPOSED
.............................................................................................

Safe disposal is enormously important, watch to make sure your healthcare provider

disposes the whole syringe in a sharps container.



We in North America are blessed to have healthcare providers who follow the steps above. It is only right that other countries and its civilians be treated with the same amount of caution and courtesy that we are treated with today.


JOIN THE CAUSE

  • Visit www.lifesaveraction.org
  • Watch the film and pass on the link
  • Help spread awareness on this silent epidemic

The goal is to educate people so that the 40+ billion injections given each year are safe. Are you willing to be one of those people?

2 comments:

  1. In all honesty, this is an alarming number 1.3 million people infected due to the improper use of needles. We are truly blessed to live in a country where our doctors and nurses do the right thing and not reuse needles. As for the AD syringe it is a brilliant invention, I think it’s an invention that should be used worldwide. It would put an end to a lot of infections that are transferred through needles today.

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  2. Truthfully, this is serious and important information. It Should be alarming to a lot of people in and out of the medical field the harm of re-using syringes. Letting millions of people know this would be able to stop the cause of many infections being spread.

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