Tackling Injection Safety Worldwide: WHO’s Safe Injection Global Network

July 10, 2015 by CDC's Safe Healthcare Blog

Dr. Evelyn McKnight

Guest Author: Dr. Evelyn McKnight,
President and Co-Founder of HONOReform

How thrilling to be part of a global effort to advance injection safety! It was a rewarding moment when we entered the doors of the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland in February to participate in meetings of the Safe Injection Global Network (SIGN).

We joined dedicated advocates of many countries, all working to eradicate reuse of syringes and needles, misuse of medication vials and unnecessary injections. Although we differed in language, culture and homeland, we were united in our passion to prevent disease transmission through unsafe injections everywhere – from India to Egypt, Uganda to the United States, and everywhere in between. We were proud to share some highlights of the One & Only Campaign with the assembly. HONOReform is eager to work with SIGN to help bring the One & Only message to all countries.

SIGN’s debut campaign in 1999 was to foster use of only auto-disable syringes in vaccination programs. A new campaign will focus on the use of “smart syringes” (those that are designed to protect both healthcare workers and patients) in therapeutic injections, reducing the number of unnecessary injections and educating about safe procedures.

Such an ambitious campaign requires everyone’s cooperation. According to the WHO, some of the critical goals of the campaign are:

For governments to develop a strategy for implementation of smart syringes, with exclusive use of smart syringes by 2020.
For donors and development partners to only fund projects that use smart syringes in administration of injectable medicines, and to fund ancillary safety measures such as single-dose vials and proper sharps disposal.
For manufacturers to expand production of smart syringes.

So many people throughout the world are affected by unsafe injection practices. We are thrilled to be part of this campaign to make all injections safe. We encourage all of our stakeholders and fellow advocates to roll up their sleeves and get to work on making this happen.

July 10, 2015 by CDC's Safe Healthcare Blog