KARACHI, Jan 1: Experts have emphasized the need for safe disposal of disposable syringes as otherwise people may be exposed to dangerous diseases such as Hepatitis C and Aids. Three hundred million syringes are used every year in the country.

Talking to APP, experts said the incineration of used needles/syringes is the best way for their safe disposal, but installation and proper management of incinerators is expensive. So doctors and others concerned with the health sector must use needle cutters.

Importance of needle cutters becomes all the more important as negligent disposal of syringes by healthcare providers exposes themselves as well as the sanitary workers to dangerous health hazards.

Since used syringes and other hospital waste are generally dumped at garbage sites, this also poses a threat to the general public. Then there are people who get these syringes collected and resell them at cheap prices.

Dr Syed Abdul Mujeeb, a senior researcher associated with Jinnah Post- graduate Medical Centre, suggests that doctors avoid indiscriminate administration of injections and drips.

Since the process of containing the tendency would take some time, he said, immediate ban could be imposed on disposing of syringes with intact needles. He said the used syringes are collected by scavengers.

With a flourishing recycling market, scavengers collecting waste are able to make high earning from collecting and selling syringes to plastic good industries. These scavengers are often found to be afflicted with infections.

In the garbage dumps such syringes are also found which drug addicts use. This makes the whole business of recycling used syringes doubly harmful.

A number of general practitioners as well as quacks in remote rural areas as well as in urban slums indiscriminately administer injections to patients for quick relief. These medical practitioners and quacks reportedly use one syringe several times. They may be claiming proper sterilization of syringes, but getting a syringe boiled for at least 15 minutes is not possible considering the rush of patients at their clinics, physicians say.-APP