Almost 63 percent of the six billion injections administered annually in India are unsafe, a doctor who conducted a country-wide study said Monday. "Approximately three billion to six billion injections are administered in the country every year, of which 1.9 billion to 3.8 billion are unsafe," said N.K. Arora, the doctor who conducted the research.
It was commissioned by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), India's most prestigious state-run hospital, to assess injection practices.
On average, an Indian took 2.9 to 5.8 injections a year, Arora said adding 48.1 per cent of all prescriptions recommended taking an injection.
About 33 percent of the unsafe injections, associated with reuse of syringes, risked the chance of infecting patients with blood-borne diseases including hepatitis and the Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), Arora said.
"The rest of the injections were rendered unsafe due to wrong practises including faulty administration techniques," he said.
About 74 per cent of injections administered under immunisation campaigns were unsafe, Arora said.
The study comes after federal health minister Anbumani Ramadoss, himself a doctor, admitted in the Indian parliament last month that most of the injections administered in the county were unsafe.
According to the minister, 69 per cent of the injections administered at government-run hospitals were unsafe.
"In order to reduce unsafe injections, the government has taken a decision to introduce auto disable syringes (disposable) in all the immunisation clinics and central government hospitals from 2005," Ramadoss told parliament.
Almost 75 percent injections were administered by using plastic syringes and the rest by glass syringes which were more likely to be unsafe, the minister added.