The Demand

Needlestick safety is a big problem for public health, medical insurance and manufacturers of disposable medical products. The spread of HIV/AIDS has been dramatic enough, but many other infections are also being spread by used needles, not only endangering the lives of health care workers - nurses, doctors, cleaners - but also the many other people intentionally or accidentally punctured by used needles.

The cost of disease transmission by used needles is estimated to be in the order of US$10 billion per year.

Professor Ernie Drucker, of the Albert Einstein College of medicine, has estimated that the number of injections made by unsterile needles exceeds 30 billion per year.

He has also pointed out the very worrying fact that an animal virus can adapt to infect humans when it is repeatedly passed from human to human by unsterile needles.

This is a major health problem, and is being formally recognized in the passage of laws prohibiting the use of standard unsafe syringes. The result of all this is a flurry of new products described as "safe". Many are reworkings of old ideas and many are ill-conceived, with scant regard for clinical need.

No nurse or doctor willingly compromises surgical technique even if the law requires it. The optimal treatment of the patient comes first. But if a so-called safe syringe requires a special method of use or is too expensive for the clinic, the new device may not be used. These new products are therefore likely to have only a limited life span in the health marketplace.