One can never be too careful. Problems worldwide with the spread of HIV and other blood-borne diseases has prompted the World Health Organization to begin issuing a new kind of syringe.
It is called an autodisable syringe, built for mass immunizations like the recent trip to the Cardamoms. The 50-milligram syringe can only be withdrawn once. After that, it is locked in place by plastic teeth within the cylinder. One syringe can be used on just one person, making it impossible to infect a second party with a blood-transmitted disease.
“Cambodia has a good record for safe injections,” said WHO immunization expert Keith Feldon. Nevertheless, he said, sometimes used syringes show up in markets, having been cleaned but not properly sterilized. After the new syringes are used, they are immediately put into safety boxes and transported out of the area.
In addition, many hospitals have difficulty disposing of used syringes. They end up dumped wherever hospitals can hide them—in fresh-water wells or in large piles of trash. The trash is later burned, but at temperatures too low to destroy the syringes.
So in addition to the single-use syringes, the Ministry of Health and the WHO are beginning distribution of “auto-combustion incinerators.”
The ovens continue burning material like syringes, medicine bottles, rubber gloves and other hospital trash until there is nothing left but residue. The safety boxes with the single-use syringes are burned there as well, making the process of immunization much safer, Feldon said.
The government and WHO hope to have 15 of the incinerators in place by April, with one in every province by 2002.
