By Muhammed Aladdin.
According to the World Health Organization, millions suffer from infectious diseases every year around the world due to unsafe needles. In fact, a 2010 study has shown that “up to 1.7 million people were infected with hepatitis B, up to 315,000 with hepatitis C and as many as 33,800 with HIV through unsafe injections”.
Not many people are aware of the health dangers of using a needle more than once, and hundreds of thousands are accidentally struck by one every year. The problem is driving an epidemic of infections across the world.
One Egyptian company has come to the rescue with a new, ‘smart’ needle. An Egyptian company, the Arab Medical Equipment Company, a family business that has been running for 35
After one use, the RETARGO Syringe retracts the exposed needle, preventing the re-use of the syringe and eliminating the threat of further infection.
According to AMECO’s website, “RETRAGO is the first automatically retractable syringe that features Auto-Disable (AD), Re-Use Prevention (RUP), and Sharp Injury Protection (SIP) safety mechanisms in one device”.
On Wednesday, UNAIDS celebrated RETARGO as one of the 20 most promising innovations in healthcare around the world. AMECO’s CEO Omar El Fata traveled to Geneva to demonstrate RETARGO in front of a hundred of the world’s health ministers as a part of the World Health Organization’s assembly.
If distributed on a wider scale, HIV and hepatitis C infections as a result of used needles could decrease significantly.
Currently, AMECO is the first and largest single-use syringe manufacturer in the Middle East.