5 ms·
This news report makes my mind boggle. Reuse of syringes? In this century? The doctor says he was too poor to afford syringes! So reuse of syringes is the solu
by egtiller 7y ago
This news report makes my mind boggle. Reuse of syringes? In this century?
The doctor says he was too poor to afford syringes! So reuse of syringes is the solution? Bill the cost of the syringe to the patient. Ask for donations. Do whatever it takes but never reuse a syringe. How can a doctor find reuse of syringes remotely acceptable?
- Gatsky 7y agoI think you are getting distracted. The real problem is abject poverty, and ineffective government. We could be endlessly horrified about what actually goes on in the world’s most disadvantaged places, rather than just what makes the NY Times.
- andrewstuart 7y agoThis is how poverty works - they probably genuinely have no way if getting the needed stuff even if they knew how important it is.
- sures 7y agoThis! And the general lack of safety culture also plays a role in incidents like this.
- i_feel_great 7y agoPoverty exacerbated tremendously by financial and social corruption all around.
- masonic 7y agoToo poor to even afford a simple chlorine bleach solution to rinse syringes (at minimum!) is very poor indeed.
- oefrha 7y agoThe doctor says the parents of the patient were too poor to afford syringes; and the family was already starving in order to pay for the medicine. Wouldn’t it be nice if patients could afford anything. Reality doesn’t work that way though, and some first world people just can’t imagine what real poverty is like (I can’t either). > When Mr. Jalbani protested, he said, Mr. Ghanghro snapped at him and told him he was using an old syringe because Mr. Jalbani was too poor to pay for a new one. > “He said, ‘If you don’t want my treatment, go to another doctor.’” Mr. Jalbani said. “My wife and I had to starve ourselves to pay for the medicine.”
- hn_throwaway_99 7y agoI still for the life of me can't understand how anyone with any medical training at all could reuse a syringe. Some other shortcuts I could imagine, but reusing a syringe is like eventually guaranteeing this kind of outbreak.
- oefrha 7y agoBetween this and no treatment, the choice is easy for most people. Although I do find “rummaging through the trash” for syringes astonishing. If you’re gonna reuse it, at least sterilize it (failing that, rinse it) and store it somewhere clean?
- tomc1985 7y agoThis is what I've never understood about the "you don't know poverty" argument... sure they may not have equipment but there are basic best practices that cost little more than time Perhaps there are more people that would prefer to watch the world burn than we think
- oefrha 7y agoPoverty also correlates with lack of education, so there’s also that. I heard (without any verification) that until recently a large percentage of rural population in India find nothing wrong in drinking from and shitting in the same river (let’s put aside technicalities like upstream/downstream).
- hn_throwaway_99 7y agoSurely the doctors have some education, though.
- throwaway8941 7y agoBecause you don't know what real poverty is like (neither do I)? I remember a story from one of Atul Gawande's books (was it Complications?) about how rural Indian surgeons operate. As he described it, they were missing many kinds of equipment that western surgeons consider absolutely indispensable in doing their work. They replaced it with whatever was available, stuff like plastic piping from the nearest plumbing store, which then comes into contact with the entrails of the patient, so to speak.
- strainer 7y agoIn a hard place at a push, syringes could be sterilized before reuse. Sterilization is not effective against prions but some doctors without supplies could possibly resort to it. The story is gut wrenching. Children in poverty need free basic health services everywhere.
- adrr 7y agoEven if he re-used a syringe. Couldn't he have disinfected it with heat or flushing the needles with a water/bleach solution?
- cbhl 7y agoArticle also says that the doctor charged 20 cents (presumably US cents) to treat a patient. Compare that with $300 USD to see my GP for fifteen minutes...
- Symbiote 7y agoSyringes cost 2-4¢ in a developing country (from a quick search) so that explains the problem.