Sunday, 14 October 2007
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POST 01171E : RETRACTABLE SYRINGE Follow-up on Post 01166E 14 October 2007 ____________________________________ [log in to unmask]">Vijay Kiran from India contributes the following comments raising again an important issue of disposal. We have discussed sharps disposal many times before, as recently as June and July 2007 (Posts 01111E and 01121E). John Lloyd had said that "industrial kilns achieve higher temperatures and have less emissions than WDUs, so surely this is a better option if transport costs allow it". My requests for cost data after the last posting remained unanswered. Would these kilns, very numerous in India, provide the solution? And what is being done in India about the majority of syringes used in curative services, to respect the Pollution Control law? Would recycling or melting to make building blocks be a viable option? ____________________________________ Thanks to Carib for posting this. Addition of AD syringe to the armamentorium of injections was a breakthrough since it reduced many programmatic errors of AEFI. But the safe disposal of used syringes is a major concern in view of the stringent Pollution Control law in India. Immunization injections are just 5% of the total injection load, and in numbers amount to 10 injections per each child for a birth cohort of 26 millions. Since burning or burying are not permitted and the steps involved in the disposal process till district level are cumbersome - like cutting the used syringe from the hub using a hub cutter, placing the infected and non infectious waste in various colored bags, disinfecting the same before final disposal in a pit - the entire gamut of injection safety has become a big question mark. The non / mal functioning of hub cutters, timely availability of the disinfectants and various colored bags and the improper training on the use of sharps pit specially in outreach areas up to the block level are of major concern. With this scenario, the addition of the retractable syringes seems to reduce 50% of the problems in injection safety by cutting down the needle stick injuries and access of unsafe injections to the community. Keeping the bulk of injections and the regulations of the Pollution control board in Indian context an implementable solution for final / terminal disposal would be most welcome. Dr. [log in to unmask]">Vijay Kiran Country representative IMMUNIZATIONbasics, India ______________________________________________________________________________ All members of the TechNet21 e-Forum are invited to send comments on any posting or to use the forum to raise a new discussion or request technical information in relation to immunization services. The comments made in this forum are the sole responsibility of the writers and do not in any way mean that they are endorsed by any of the organizations and agencies to which the authors may belong. ______________________________________________________________________________ Visit the TECHNET21 Website at http://www.technet21.org You will find instructions to subscribe, a direct access to archives, links to reference documents and other features. ______________________________________________________________________________ To UNSUBSCRIBE, send a message to : [log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask] Leave the subject area BLANK In the message body, write unsubscribe TECHNET21E ______________________________________________________________________________ The World Health Organization and UNICEF support TechNet21. The TechNet21 e-Forum is a communication/information tool for generation of ideas on how to improve immunization services. It is moderated by Claude Letarte and is hosted in cooperation with the Centre de coopération internationale en santé et développement, Québec, Canada (www.ccisd.org ______________________________________________________________________________
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