Hazards of Injectable Therapy

INTRODUCTION For more than 60 years! numerous authors from countries all over the world have repeatedly observed the complications of injections. Bacterial abscesses following injections using improperly sterilized materials are cornmon-. The association between quinine injections and iatrogenic tetanus has been reportedthe Ivory Coast. Other authors have reported the relation between wrongly injected quinine and sciatic nerve paralysis". The prodromal phase of poliomyelitis may predispose to paralysis of a limb injected with quinines. The person-to-person transmission of African haemorrhagic fever in Zaire? has been observed after use of contaminated and inadequately sterilized needles and syringes. Needle stick injuries can transmit HIy7, although the magnitude of the risk is subject to debate". Some cases of HIY seropositivity resulting from stick injuries have been observed in the United States7. In Zaire9 a possible correlation between a history of injections and AIDS has been reported. The poor hygenic conditions existing in many peripheral health units make this method of transmission more feasible. The advantages of injections are unquestionable in certain conditions, such as malaria or pneumonia in vomiting or unconscious patients. Compliance with treatment regimens may also improve using injections. However, in small health units such conditions are relatively rare. Eighty to 90070 of the children presumed to have malaria and treated with injectable antimalarials have, in fact, another aetiology!". And of those 'real' cases of malaria, only a small proportion require an injection. Where penicillin injections were previously prescribed, for example, in acute respiratory infections, good alternatives such as cotrimoxazole are now available.