"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.

Quoting WHO estimates, Koska said 2,30,000 HIV infections, 10, 00,000 Hepatitis C infections, 21,000,000 Hepatitis B infections and 1,300,000 deaths occurred world-wide every year owing to unsafe injections.

After Pakistan and Uganda, resolutions on safe syringes have been passed in Kenya, Zambia and Malawi, he said.

Koska, who named his invention as 'Kojak' or K 1, said it had been credited by 62 countries with saving more than 5.5 million lives.

Stating that AD syringes were now being manufactured in 14 countries, he said Safepoint Trust provided the technology to the manufacturers under a free licence arrangement to help keep production costs low.

Urging the Centre to enact a safe-injection policy, Koska has launched a week-long campaign since November 14 through Safepoint, including 30 and 60-second public awareness message on television, a four-minute film in cinemas, a 30-second radio message from Kiran Bedi and leaflets to be distributed through national banks.

NGOs like 'Save the Children' were also supporting the campaign.

"A safe injection policy written by the government and passed as national legislation in India is imperative in ensuring that every man, woman and child received a safe injection," he said.