Events

For a healthy cause

Aashruti Kak/Garima Arora - Mumbai

While safety is mandatory in all walks of life, a healthcare worker's safety is the least of all concerns. It is this fact that motivated Becton, Dickinson India (BD India) to launch the BD Venflon Pro Safety IV Catheter that ensures protection against needlestick injuries and reduces risk due to blood exposure. Needlestick injuries can lead to the transmission of fatal blood borne infections including Hepatitis B virus (HBV), Hepatitis C virus (HCV), and the Human Immunodefficiency Virus (HIV). BD Venflon Pro Safety Catheter has an advanced needle shield design to safeguard healthcare workers from needlestick injuries. Once activated, the needle tip is encapsulated inside the smooth-edged plastic shield. This reduces the risk of healthcare workers injuring themselves with the sharp needle tip.

The product was designed keeping in mind the results of market research agency, Partners in Quality Research (PQR), which revealed that many clinicians felt that the existing safety IV catheters in the market did not provide adequate protection against blood exposure. BD Venflon has been specifically designed to reduce blood splatter. BD Vialon biomaterial that is used in the catheter is believed to reduce the risk of all phlebitis cases by nearly 30 percent and delivers longer in-dwelling time. The biomaterial softens once inside the vein confirming to the shape of the vein.

Despite the high risk rate of occupational infections, there is very little awareness about healthcare worker safety. To highlight this crucial issue BD India also organised a concurrent panel discussion on healthcare worker safety with eminent panelists from Tata Memorial, Hinduja, Saifee and Lilavati hospital. "A healthcare worker's safety is not given much importance in India, which is why even a worker himself would not know about the dangers of not having safety wear," said Dr Ajitha Mehta, Head Of the Department (HOD) Microbiology, Hinduja Hospital, one of the panelists.

While the ongoing debate was that not much was being done about the situation, Dr Nita Munshi, HOD of Pathology, Inlaks and Budhrani Hospital, Pune, countered by saying, "There is a lot being done by hospitals and Infection Control Society, for instance, hospitals have started vaccinating the Class III and IV employees." "Protocols are in place but people do not come forth and report because they are afraid they will lose their jobs," she added,

Research studies conducted in India have revealed that needle stick injuries have led to the transmission of infections such as HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis B. Over 37 percent of healthcare workers never use protective gear while handling potentially contaminated patients and another 23 percent are frequently subjected to blood exposure at work. A healthcare worker who is infected may also unknowingly pass on these deadly diseases to patients. Dr Rohini Kelkar, HOD Microbiology, Tata Memorial, yet another participant in the panel said, "We, as healthcare providers, are responsible for provision of safety. It is the administration which is supposed to provide the workers with a safer work environment. Safer innovative devices using protected needle or needle free systems with self-sealing parts would alleviate many incidents." "Let us not learn safety by accident," she concluded.

garima.arora@expressindia.com
aashruti.kak@expressindia.com