The designer of WHO approved safe syringes has been trying to meet the Health Minister for 3 years.
Although a study commissioned by the Health Ministry has indicated that injection practices in the country as appalling, Union Health minister Ambumani Ramadoss has not found time to meet the inventor of a WHO-approved safe syringe who has been trying for three years to do so.
"I have been trying to meet Dr Ramadoss for the past three years, but have not been able to see him," Marc Koska, who designed the auto-disabled (AD) syringe, said in Kolkata.
An 'Officer of the British Empire' (OBE) for contribution to healthcare, Koska's lobbying has prompted the Ugandan government to enact a law restricting the import of normal re-usable syringes and mandate the import of AD syringes.
He helped draft a similar legislation for Pakistan which was the first country to enact a related law in 2005.
Currently in India on a safe-injection campaign through his UK-registered charity Safepoint Trust, Koska claimed AD syringes designed by him had been approved by former president A P J Abdul Kalam and Magsaysay award winner Kiran Bedi.
According to Koska, a study conducted by the IndiaCLEN Programme Evaluation Network on behalf of the Union Health Ministry and the World Bank had found that nearly two-thirds of injections were administered in an unsafe manner.
It also found that one-third of injections administered in the country carried the potential risk of transmitting blood-borne virus and that unsafe injections were in the highest use in immunisation programme under government and private health facilities.
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