WHO Raises Red Flag on Reuse of Syringes
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Ingram Publishing/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — The World Health Organization says the reuse of needles on patients is driving the global spread of deadly diseases like Hepatitis and HIV. That’s why the WHO is urging doctors and hospitals to switch to smart syringes, which intentionally break after the first use.
“Once you push down on the plunger to inject, it actually will block or break so that you can’t actually use it a second time,” Lisa Hedman at the WHO’s headquarters in Geneva tells ABC News.
She says smart syringes would go a long way towards protecting patients and their caregivers.
“Some of them also have features that would actually cover up a needle so that the health care worker, the person giving the injection, doesn’t get exposed to the sharp in case they’re dealing with somebody who’s got a highly infectious disease,” Hedman notes.
Given that about 16 billion injections are given worldwide every year, malpractice is virtually inevitable, she says.
“In a situation where somebody doesn’t understand that they can’t reuse that syringe on a second patient, that second person is then very, very much at risk for catching the disease — and it could be a very serious disease — of the person before,” she explains.
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