Hepatitis scare: Gujarat rules out special syringes

The Gujarat Government has not placed a single order for auto-disabled (AD) syringes till date,despite several attempts by the Association of Indian Medical Devices Industries to convince the government about the benefits of the auto-disabled syringes and a letter by the Union Health Minister,Ambumani Ramadoss directing the use of AD syringes in all government hospitals by April. On Monday,Ramadoss had anounced that by the end of April it would become mandatory for all the state health centres to use AD syringe. While Gujarat stands second last in the list of states adopting safe injection practices,State Health Minister,Jay Narayan Vyas clarifies that the AD syringes would not be of no much help and questioned its availability.

This comes at a time when Vyas himself has confirmed the use of infected syringes to be the reason behind the Hepatitis B (HBV) outbreak in Modasa. “The comparative cost of an auto disabled syringe to a disposable syringe is really high,about 20 times more at Rs 20-25,while a disposable syringe costs less than two rupees. While manually destroying the syringe would work equally well,we need to ensure that it is not reused. When doctors have not yet reached rural areas how can we talk about taking sophistication to these places?,” said Vyas.

However,president of the Association of the Indian Medical Devices Industries,Rajiv Nath points out,“We have been constantly in touch with the AMC,the health department and the Indian Medical Association (IMA)’s Gujarat Chapter for the use of AD syringes. Five formal presentations and 100 seminars/ training sessions later we have not received any positive reply in four years. Neither the AMC nor the government has placed a single order for the AD syringes till date.”