Needle-Stick Injuries – An Occupational Risk
Unfortunately, unsafe injection practices are fairly rife, putting healthcare workers, patients, and the community at fatal risk. The diseases most frequently transmitted through unsafe injection practices are Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS. Unsafe injections can also lead to abscesses, septicaemia nerve damage, and haemorrhagic fevers. Doctors and healthcare workers are a particularly vulnerable category, given their susceptibility to occupational hazards such as accidental Needle-Stick Injuries (NSIs) that can occur while or after delivering an injection. Though NSIs appear innocuous, a 2003 WHO Report illustrated that there were 3 million accidental NSIs leading to 37 per cent of all new Hepatitis B cases in healthcare workers, 39 per cent of new Hepatitis C cases and about 5.5% of new HIV cases. More Sharp Injury Prevention, conducted on a smaller scale, indicate that the burden of diseases from NSIs in medical workers remains fairly high.
Dispojekt Safety Needles
The WHO injection safety guidelines (2015) strongly recommend the use of safety engineered syringes and needles with Sharps Injury Protection/Prevention (SIP) feature by medical workers administering intramuscular, subcutaneous, and intradermal injections to patients. Keeping with these recommendations by WHO for safety engineered products and a longstanding commitment to manufacture medical devices that ensure the safety of the patients and medical workers alike, Hindustan Syringes & Medical Devices Ltd., has recently launched single use safety needles in technical collaboration with the U.K based Star Syringes, with sharps injury prevention feature under the brand name Dispojekt Needle. These can be mounted on to a standard Dispo Van single use syringe or a KOJAK Auto Disable safety engineered syringe that disables automatically after injection to prevent any reuse, to avoid the spread of blood borne injection related infection.
Launched with the tagline dedicated to healthcare professionals of “taking care of those who take care of us”, the single-use sterile needles have been designed to protect healthcare workers from the risk of accidental NSIs (Needle stick injury). Salient features of the Dispojekt SIP (Sharp Injury Prevention) shield are as follows:
- One handed activated safety mechanism (immediately after needle withdrawal and usage)
- Affordable and competitively priced
- Sharp three-bevelled siliconized needle to minimize patient discomfort
- User-friendly, not requiring a change in injection technique
- Initially Available in 22G (Gauge), 23G and 24G
It must be noted that surveys have indicated that accidental NSIs in healthcare providers frequently occur during and after disposal. For instance, recapping contaminated needles is associated with NSIs. But with a needle shield that completely encloses the needle, a Sharps Injury Prevention (SIP) feature that remains protective through disposal, and is possible to activate single-handedly, the Dipojekt SIP Safety Needle helps to protect medical workers as it is designed keeping in mind safety and well being of the medical workers.
Achieving another Mile-Stone
With the unveiling of this new product, HMD has achieved yet another milestone on its illustrious trajectory. As one of the world’s leading companies specializing in disposable medical devices, HMD has always invested in cutting-edge innovation and technology to provide features that safeguard the health of patients, medical workers, and the community and contribute to reducing disease burden. In 2002, HMD launched the first Auto-Disable (AD) syringe in India in technical collaboration with UK-based global licensing company Star Syringes. “DISPOJEKT SIP Needle is the effort of over 4 years of passionate collaboration between engineers from the U.K, Germany, Switzerland, Japan and India. Designed to enable high value mass production affordable price and rapid ramp up in availability, it has fewer components than competing designs in other countries and with considerably lesser cost. Its success is dedicated to the hard work of our Chief Designer Mr Graham Madin, who we unfortunately lost recently to pancreatic cancer,” said an emotionally charged Rajiv Nath, Managing Director, Hindustan Syringes and Medical Devices.
Located in Faridabad, Haryana, India, this award-winning company is one of the top three manufacturers of syringes and needles in the world. Producing an impressive nearly 4 lakh syringes every hour, HMD (Hindustan Syringes and Medical Devices Ltd) is currently helping to meet the worldwide demand for syringes amidst global COVID-19 vaccination efforts.
Website: https://hmdhealthcare.com
