Though the health care infrastructure in India is apathetic and appalling, the Indian government is gearing up thanks to the outbreak of swine flu. This becomes evident owing to the latest instruction of the government. The government has made it mandatory for all health centres to use non-reusable syringes. Don’t you consider this as great? A number of investigations have stated that among 5 billion medical injections administered in India annually, 62 per cent are unsafe. The news is, indeed, shocking and has brought Marc Koska, inventor of non-reusable K1 syringes, to India.

Who is this Marc Koska? Keep in mind that his UK-based charity SafePoint led a crusade all over the country in November last year. What’s more, this single activity made the government realize the exact situation and made it instruct usage of Auto Disable (AD) syringes mandatory in all public health centres from April 30. How did Koska succeed? Koska left no stone unturned to make it an everlasting success, involved over 10,000 radio and 5,000 television advertisements along with endorsements from such public faces like Kiran Bedi and Mark Tully. In addition, the movement laid emphasis on the pressing need to put a stop to blood-borne diseases transmitted through unclean syringes that kills more that 300,000 people a year.

There is no doubt that this was a history in India, a country where the appalling health care infrastructure victimizes hundreds of thousands people on each year. “It was, in fact, a 2005 study commissioned by the government that revealed these shocking figures. Yet, four years after, the ministry took no action. After I decided to reach out through public information, as I had done in a number of countries in Africa like Nigeria and Ghana, Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss finally agreed to meet me and agreed to issue a mandate,” says Koska.

Will the non-reusable syringes be able to relieve rural Indian from endemics? The advocators seem to be confident.