Expert Blogs

In the early 1950s an estimated 50 million cases of smallpox occurred every year.   The vaccine was widely use in the rich countries but it would deteriorate within three days of being taken out of a refrigerator and vaccination in tropical countries was effectively impossible.

Professor Leslie Collier, who died aged 90 this week in London, worked out a way to freeze-dry smallpox vaccine so that it could travel to areas with hot climates. Professor Collier’s re-formulated vaccine was put in 200-dose vials and carried to remote areas with saline solution to re-constitute the powdered vaccine, a pot for boiling needles and two plastic tubes – one for new needles and the other for used needles.

The Cervical Cancer Action (CCA) coalition is pleased to announce the publication of Progress in Cervical Cancer Prevention: The CCA Report Card.

The report card, launched on April 13 during the 44th Session of the United Nations Commission on Population and Development, documents global progress in low- and middle-income countries over the past decade to fight cervical cancer using new, proven, and cost-effective approaches.

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Disposal of syringes, needles, used bandages, broken equipment and many other items of medical waste remains a challenge in most countries.· The first priority is to dispose of the used equipment where it will do no harm¹ to anyone who happens to come into contact with it.· Throwing out used syringes without being enclosed in a secure safety box and proper disposal of the safety boxes (which is not easy), means that they often end up on an open dump.· Here, there is often someone with a significant incentive to look for anything that can be re-sold – including used syringes.· One study in India showed that rag pickers (people who scavenge rubbish dumps for anything that can be re-sold) receive on average five needle sticks each day from syringes and needles that they are collecting to recycle.· Auto-disable syringes can’t of course be re-used and therefore have no re-sale value back into the medical services either formal or informal.· What about the health rag pickers however?· They are exposed to hepatitis B, HIV, and tetanus infections and who know what else from the needle sticks.