Fake syringes in the Indian market?

BODRUM

HI YALL ON IM

IVE HAD A FEW PEOPLE TELL ME NOT TO TRUST A INDIAN DOCTOR WITH A SYRING. WHAT U RECKON TRUE OR FALSE. BECAUSE I NEED MY JABS AND THINK OF GETTING SOME OVER IN DELHI.

I THINK PEOPLE WHO SAY NEVER TRUST AN INDIAN WITH A SYRINGE ARE REALLY DAMAGING YOUR INDIAN HEALTH SERVICE.




Mod Note:

Would you please not write in capital letters which is akin to shouting at us all. Thanks.

Pafzumes

hi bodrum, this is really something ridiculous.
You should never trust anyone(indian or otherwise)with syring
but if that person happens to be a doc, you have no option but to give yrself. anyhow, an indian doc,indeed,is trustworthy.but only precaution is that you see a registered doc in clinic or hospital

Shivani Skydancer

No no no! Make sure you only ever go to a reputable clinic! There was a huge racket going on earlier this year, when it was revealed that private contractors were collecting used syringes from doctors and inadequately sterilising them before repackaging them for distribution. As a result of these contaminated old syringes so many people contracted hepatitis B and many died!!

The World Health Organization estimates that 300 000 people die in India annually as a result of dirty syringes.

Check out this article:
http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/181/1-2/26

BODRUM

well thats answered my question, many thanks for ur help

Nick-H

Whilst that article is very frightening, it seems to suggest that this re-use of syringes is likely to be met with in slums

Shivani Skydancer

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/lif...cle5931974.ece :

In India, the average person has three to five medical injections per year. Around 62% of these will be delivered by unsterile or reused syringes. Worldwide, 1.3m people die each year from receiving unsafe medical injections. India has the worst problem: the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that in India alone, 300,000 people die every year as a result of dirty syringes.

The problem is not confined to slums or rural villages. Private and government hospitals are also reusing syringes. Thousands of people are entering hospitals with minor ailments and leaving with life-threatening infections because practitioners won’t spend money on new equipment, or simply don’t know any better.

BODRUM

well hope i wont end up in a indian hospital whilst im there its a real shame because i think indian doctors a real good at what they do , i had a indian doctor all my life back when i was living in the uk.

Nick-H

India's capacity to shock me remains unstrained, and I wonder, sometimes (I started the day reading a newspaper article about children subjected to torture in bonded labour) if it has even started

Aishah

Well that syringe link has shocked me. But in a way, it does not surprise me. To be absolutely on the safe side, take your own syringe, packed properly and bought from a medical store. Any medical procedure I have ever had where syringes were required, I have been given a list of medications including the syringes to buy. In this way you know that it is not a re-used syringe.

__________________
"Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards."

Nick-H

But... If even the pharma companies are buying and recycling them?

epidaetia

All these reputed hospitals show you the sealed syringe before opening up the packet. So shouldn't be a problem.
Carrying our own is another good idea.

Aishah

That was what I first thought too, Nick, but after reading the link more carefully, I don't think the pharma companies would be doing that. At least we hope not - I suppose it's either a strong constitution with well-built up immunities, good luck, or the fact that all those packaged syringes I've had over the years were the real thing, but touch wood, no horrible diseases seem to have been passed on to me via a syringe!

Nick-H

There was mention, in the first link, of used syringes being re-packaged as new. I'm not suggesting that multi-national companies would do this, and to them, the cost might be as much as manufacturing, anyhow, but local suppliers were, I think, implicated. This was in connection, not with multiple use within a clinic, but with syringes harvested by rag pickers.

In a country where a white synthetic liquid can be sold in recycled milk packets, this doesn't take much imagination.

I don't think I've had any injections here yet. I've had a number of blood tests, though, and one glucose drip, so I've had a few needles stuck in me.

Now... my inoculations are way out of date (still ). This makes me see how essential they are --- but, also, a bit nervous about getting them

fsg

I met a doctor in Karakuki, TN who invited me to join him at his surgery.

Most patients were country folk. He scoffed at they way they carried their money, in a bit of polythene, they were routinely given an injection, a mm of this , plus a bit of that, charged and sent on their way, the syringe was used multiple times.
.
Wincing in pain at the needle

However one fellow came in with his own syringe and needle, rich man said the doctor!!

The Indians I meet seem to think that an injection is the panacea to cure all ills.

I'd rather self medicate from the chemist.

Yes Im still alive just

__________________
The British gave India bureaucracy..... India perfected it [Lord Desai]

Nick-H

That is a horrifying story, fsg.

I was amazed at ---what was it, six times a year?--- the stated average number of injections received by an Indian. That, along with the over-prescription and misuse of anti-biotics, seems dreadful!