Over one million people die each year as a result of unsafe injection practice, the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates. In addition, it says that unsafe injection practice results in a large amount of disease as a result of cross infection.
Safe injections are defined by WHO as those that cause no harm to the recipient or the health care worker and do not result in harmful waste. Reasons for unsafe injection practice include a lack of awareness of safety, a lack of injection supplies, and a lack of suitable disposal procedures.
Unsafe injections occur in many parts of the world, especially in developing countries where, according to WHO, up to 50 per cent of all injections are administered with re-used syringes and needles. The transmission of blood borne pathogens accounts each year for between eight and 16 million cases of hepatitis B worldwide, two to 4.5 million cases of hepatitis C and 75,000 to 150,000 infections of HIV. In 1996, over 40 per cent of new cases of hepatitis C in Egypt were attributable to unsafe injection.
A safe injection global network (SIGN) has been formed by a cross-section of organisations and health care workers. It will co-ordinate the launch of pilot projects in five countries to develop initiatives which will ensure safe and appropriate injection use, says WHO.