Since the late 1980s, with the discovery of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and its danger to healthcare workers, safety syringes have become increasingly popular. The major advantage of the safety syringe with retractable needle lies in its role in preventing needle stick injury.
Safety syringes available today have various built-in safety mechanisms to prevent needle stick injury to the healthcare personnel. Some models have a sheath that is placed over the needle while others have a retractable needle. These syringes have an automatic mechanism that pushes the needle into the barrel once the plunger is fully depressed. They use a spring-loaded system or a manual system for retraction. Manual retraction systems are preferred because the plunger can be depressed with ease and there is no splatter effect which is observed in spring-loaded syringes. These are therefore also referred to as auto-disable syringes.
Around 600,000 to 800,000 needle stick injuries are reported per year in the United States, and in an estimate by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 58 out of 158 cases of HIV were caused by needle stick injuries. The impact of safety syringes in preventing needle stick injury is monumental, decreasing the incidence from 14 in 100,000 to 2 in 100,000.
A Swedish study reported the financial burden of ‘sharps’ injuries on the healthcare industry. The cost of healthcare-related sharps injury was estimated to be 1.8 million euros, of which 1 million euros was for hollow bore sharps injuries. It also estimates that around 3125 needle stick injuries and a burden of 850,000 euros on the healthcare system could be prevented by using safety syringes.
More than 1.3 million deaths and 535 million USD burden on the healthcare system is due to the unsafe needle practices. Blood-borne infections, including HIV, hepatitis B and C (which have a longer incubation period) take considerable time before manifesting symptoms. Hence, they create a need for various diagnostic procedures, which further pose a burden to the health care system. Though traditional syringes are commonly used for their low cost, safety syringes with retractable needles reduce the stress on the medical industry due to blood-borne diseases.
A retractable needle system also has the advantage of preventing needle reuse, thus preventing cross-contamination and the spread of blood-borne infections. Research shows unsafe healthcare practices play an important role in the transmission of HIV in underdeveloped countries of sub-Saharan Africa. The lack of availability of auto-disable retractable syringes is closely associated with HIV prevalence.
In this COVID era, with billions of vaccine doses to be administered around the globe, the risk of transmission of blood-borne infections by needle reuse and needle stick injury has increased exponentially. The World Health Organization (WHO) states that this risk is significantly higher in densely populated developing countries where conventional disposable needles are being widely reused due to economic necessity and only a physical barrier, i.e., auto-disable or retractable syringes can ensure safety. Pre-filled syringes containing one dose per vial would make the safest vaccine delivery device, but COVID-19 has created a global emergency to vaccinate billions of people rapidly. Therefore, using safety syringes with retractable needles would be more economical and safer than using conventional syringes for COVID vaccines.
Partner with
Northfield today