According to World Bank and Ministry of Health’s recent report, 65% of syringes used in India are unsafe. The demand for syringes is nowhere less than 5 billion annually, but analysts reveal that merely 1.5 billion of them get manufactured in the country.
There have been reports that doctors and medical professionals have swindled patients by using unsterilised syringes. Furthermore, the syringes are reported to have been used for more than 25 times before being disposed off. Alarmingly, these syringes most often carry within them life saving drugs into the vitals of a human being. More than 1.3 million children reportedly die each year from infected syringes, and that not less than 22 million people get infected with one or the other form of infectious diseases.
Further, on a daily basis, it is also estimated that 60% of plastic syringes used in Delhi’s hospitals are infected and unsterilised. Even the destroyed syringes are picked up from dumping sites, washed, repacked, and resold. This dangerous practice would increase the spread of blood-borne infections, and of course, deaths. Time we cared?