The Hindu : New Delhi News : Used-syringes pose a threat

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jun 23, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Used-syringes pose a threat

By Bindu Shajan Perappadan

NEW DELHI, JUNE 22. A parallel underground used-syringes market is flourishing in the city, even though the Capital has managed to account for the disposal of most of its waste sharps. According to doctors, the parallel market could prove to be a health hazard that could spin out of control in the form of increased cases of injection infections caused by the use of contaminated syringes.

According to health experts, the path that the syringes take is a cause for worry. "While Delhi has managed to streamline its waste disposal system as far as sharps are concerned, used syringes made of high quality plastics are often pilfered after use even between the nursing station and the waste treatment site.

These invariably find their way into rural clinics without ever being sterilised. And with India using as many as 4.2 billion syringes a year one, the problem is a very real and has the capacity to turn very nasty," explains Ravi Aggarwal of Toxics Link.

Circulating between private nursing homes and quacks in the urban areas, the injections also get into the rural clinics on the periphery of large towns.

"Sharp wastes generated from the cities is fast finding its way into rural and small town clinics, with used-syringes washed, sold and often even resold without adequate or sometimes no sterilisation at all," say experts.

And while there are stringent rules for the disposal of used sharps, "what is keeping the nexus going is the fact that class four hospital staff is often involved in the direct resale of the used syringes which makes the network almost impermeable.

The hospital waste is often sold off right after use, without being given a chance to be disposed or even sterilised," claim sources who also say that the practice seems rampant in smaller and private clinics.

"Reuse of syringes can infect a person with many types of viruses such as hepatitis B which can survive for long in such syringes, since they provide near ideal conditions for the virus and then can be transmitted to the unsuspecting user," explains former Delhi Medical Association president Anil Bansal.

He added that the large number of private unregistered nursing homes and quacks in the Capital aggravate the problem, "While the large hospitals are complying with the waste disposal rules, the practice continues in the unregistered nursing homes which are careless about the used sharps. And quacks, of course, are huge buyers of these syringes."

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