President's help sought to promote health by disposable syringes

New Delhi, May 10 (UNI) President's A P J Abdul Kalam's help has been sought by Marc Koska, the inventor of world's first non-reusable syringe for curative injection, to support the global campaign on Injection Safety to prevent spread of diseases like HIV/AIDS and hepatitis.

Mr Koska has prepared a short documentary film on the magnitude of the menace caused by re-use of syringes&needles. The documentary film made on the concept of ''One Injection -One Syringe'' by showing how a child dies due to AIDS which he contracted via an unsafe injection with voice over by supercop Kiran Bedi.

''A child is at risk of getting AIDS or Hepatitis after the age of five once he completes his course of immunisation. Education about the use of non-reusable syringes should be made from a grass root level, in order to create awareness about the use the safe syringes,'' he said.

The Indian government assumes that HIV in the country is transmitted mainly through sex. Even according to the figures of National AIDS Control Organization (NACO), 86 per cent of HIV transmission is due to sexual risk, 3.6 per cent due to vertical transmission, 2.4 per cent due to injection drug use, two per cent due to blood transfusions and 6 per cent due to other or not specified actions, he pointed out and said that the data gives a distorted picture since the Form used by the Government does not capture all possibilities of Blood exposures e.g. Syringe/ Needle Re-use, body piercing, Tattoos etc.

''NACO needs to redesign the Form. For a sick child or his parents it is not percentage or statistics that is important but the trauma which can be prevented. Over emphasis by NACO/ ministry on UNSAFE SEX instead of balanced communication to address of all kinds of blood exposure has lead to the stigma problem with HIV/AIDS,'' he observed.

In India four to five billion injections are given from one and a half to two billion syringes, the founder of SAFE POINT pointed out.

Safe Point, is an UK-based community which was granted a lifetime award in the form of Officer of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II in recognition of its Contribution to GlobalHealthcare.

The mission of 'SafePoint - Informing the Next Generation' is to inform the next generation in the developing world of extreme issues that can be solved through simple messages. Its primary focus is on unsafe healthcare arising from unsafe injections and advocacy of Safe Injections - lesser injections from a new syringe packet, used in front of the person and disabled and disposed in front of them.

UNI