PREVENTION 19
HOW INJECTIONS DISABLE CHILDREN
When used correctly, certain injected
medicines, like some vaccinations, are
important to protect a child’s health and
prevent disability. However, giving injections
with an unclean needle or syringe is a
common cause of infection and can pass the
germs that spread HIV and other serious
diseases like hepatitis (see Where There Is
No Doctor, pages 399 to 401, and 172).
This child was injected with a needle that was not clean
enough. The dirty needle caused an infected abscess (pocket
of pus) that burst. The child had been injected for a cold. It
would have been better to give him no medicine at all.
Dirty needles and syringes can also cause
infections that lead to paralysis or spinal
cord injury (see the story on p. 192), or
death. A needle or syringe must never
be used to inject more than one person
without first disinfecting it again.
Also, some injected medicines can cause dangerous allergic reactions, poisoning, and
deafness. And the overuse of injectable hormones to speed up childbirth and ‘give force’
to the mother is a major cause of babies born with brain damage.
How to clean and disinfect injection needles and syringes
Most syringes and needles are disposable (are used only once) and come in sterile
packages. Some of them can be taken apart, boiled, and reused several times before they fall
apart. We do not recommend this, but if you must reuse them, follow these instructions first:
1. Put on a pair of heavy gloves to protect your hands.
2. Draw clean water (or even better, mix 1 part bleach with 7 parts water) up through the
needle into the syringe barrel. If you use bleach, make a fresh solution each day or
it will not be strong enough to kill germs anymore.
3. Squirt out the water or bleach. Do this several times.
4. If you have used bleach, rinse everything several times with clean water.
5. Take apart the syringe and needle and boil them in water for 20 minutes (as long as it
takes to cook rice), or steam them for 20 minutes.
Note: For both boiling and steaming, start counting the 20 minutes after the
water is fully boiling.
To boil them, make
sure water covers
everything in the
pot the entire time.
If possible, put a lid
on the pot.
To steam them, you need a
steamer pot with a lid (a pot
with holes in it that fits inside
another pot). Use enough
water to keep steam coming
out the side of the lid for 20
minutes.
Storing your needles and syringes
When the needle and syringe have dried, store them carefully in a dry
container, like a glass jar with a screw-on lid. Make sure these have also first
been cleaned and disinfected. If you are not able to store them this way, boil or
steam the needle and syringe again before use.
disabled village children