Deadly trade: The lethal dose of a used injection

Pakistan, with 1.5 billion syringes used annually, is one of the largest users of syringes in the world.

ISLAMABAD: Raheemullah, 13, a scavenger, busily examined a used syringe he found in a rubbish dump while sitting on the roadside near Chandni Chowk, Rawalpindi.

“I found it while searching for leftover food in a trashcan near Holy Family Hospital,” he told The Express Tribune.

When asked what he planned to do with it, he replied, “I will sell it just like I sell other things.”

He may earn Re1 or 2 from it, but was completely oblivious to the harm it may cause himself or someone else.

According to the Pakistan Medical Association President Dr Arshad Rana, scavengers are often found collecting used syringes outside many private and public hospitals or clinics. When asked what eventually happens to the syringes, he said, “The used syringes are repackaged and resold in the markets.”

“This business is very common in Pakistan and is openly done in various well-known wholesale medicine markets,” he said.

“The government can simply not control the spread of Hepatitis B&C unless it brings an end to this business, introduce auto-destructive syringes and appropriate legislation for their use,” he said.

In many hospitals, the lack of incinerators is the main reason behind used syringes being dumped into trashcans. These are then easily accessible to the people behind the harmful trade.

According to documents provided to The Express Tribune by the Ministry of Health, Pakistan is one of the largest users of syringes in the world; approximately 1.5 billion syringes are used annually.

Mainly because of the non-regulation of syringes, low literacy rate and plenty of quackery, the country has 1.5 million patients suffering from Hepatitis B & C. The deaths caused by these diseases outnumber the deaths caused by terrorist attacks.

A Ministry of Health official, on the condition of anonymity, revealed that the illegal import of components used to manufacture syringes in unhygienic conditions is rampant, despite many laws.

The Sindh Assembly passed a bill on January 12 that bans the use of conventional disposable syringes. Unfortunately, the bill is pending in other provinces.

Chairperson of Infection Control Committee at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, Professor Anwarul Haque, said, “We once found a packed syringe in the hospital that had a drop of blood in it.”

Former Minister for Health Makhdoom Shahabuddin on February 3, while responding to a call attention notice in the National Assembly, said there was demand of 1.2 billion syringes in the country while local production stood at only 0.77 billion.  According to him, the remaining demand is met by either importing syringes or smuggling them in.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 23^rd, 2011.