They sought for treatment because they were sick, but ended up contracting other more serious infections including HIV and AIDS because a nurse decided to re-use the nearest syringe, also said to be sub-standard.
Sarah, 16yrs old South African girl was recently told by her mother that she was accidentally infected with HIV as a TB patient in a Western Cape health centre.
She now wants her mother to take the Western Cape health authorities to court over her infection believed to be accidental “so that this doesn’t happen to anyone else”.
Her family believes she was infected as a TB patient when she was 9 at Tygerberg Children’s hospital. Her case came to the limelight after a nurse treating her was accidentally pricked by a needle stick that the hospital sought permission to test her that her HIV positive status was discovered.
“When I was younger I couldn’t understand why my sisters were all well but I was sick. I was very angry especially because no one could exactly say how I was infected. Now I am trying to make sense out of things,” she is quoted saying in a media article.
If you think Kenya is an exception to infections from needles wrongly handled or re-used at healthcare facilities, then you are wrong.
Davis Robinson Ochoki is aged 8 and lives with his family in Nairobi’s Kawangware estate. He was born normally at a public hospital in the city on December 25, 1998.
According to his mother, he was born in perfect health and received all the necessary immunization procedures. They normally went for treatment at a local clinic whenever they had or suspected malaria.
In early 1999 Davis’s health started deteriorating and was often hospitalized. It was not until he was diagnosed with TB in 2005 that doctors recommended that the family have an HIV test.
Davis’s father, a casual labourer in Nairobi’s industrial area was so sure of his status. Before their second child, Jimmy was born in 2000, he and his wife had several tests and were found to be HIV negative.
This time round however, the man could not believe what the doctors told him.
“I couldn’t believe what I was being told and asked for a second test which proved that my son was HIV positive,” he says.
He couldn’t understand how this was possible. The boy was aged 6 at that time. “When going for tests with my wife, so long as we are okay we know our children are okay so we don’t test them, how is it possible for my son who has neither had sex nor blood transfusion be positive? My son has also never been operated, its just not possible,” he adds tears rolling over his eyes.
It took him almost a year to tell his wife what was happening. “How could I explain to her? How do you expect her to understand?” He asks confused.
The next thing he did was take his younger son Jimmy for a test. Luckily, he was HIV negative. Right now if you see the two, they look alike yet so different.
Davis is very weak. Always sick while Jimmy is the strongest. The two, innocent kids are unaware of their status and none of course can explain why Davis is always sick. They are too young to understand what is happening.
It was not until recently that Davis’s father came to know that Davis could have been infected through syringe re-use.
It dawned on him that indeed, he has never seen the nurses use new syringe from a new pack whenever they took their children for treatment at the local hospital.
Maybe they were new but he never saw them use one from a new packet. The family now wants responsible personalities and especially manufacturers of re-usable syringes to compensate them.
They have gone through a lot of stress and trauma.
A nurse at the hospital confirmed that they have been using syringes manufactured by Becton Dickinson, world’s largest syringe manufacturers.
Davis’s case is not isolated. In Nyando District, there is a case of a young girl aged 6. Selina is the fourth born in a family of six. She was recently diagnosed HIV positive after tests at Awasi Catholic dispensary. The medical laboratory technician at the hospital, Mr David Omollo says after testing the child he did some investigations on the case.
The whole family was found to be HIV negative. What came out from the case was that the child could have been infected through syringe re-use.
This is because, as in the case of Davis, Selina has never had a blood transfusion, never had an operation so there is no risk from these two possibilities, but has had several injections which could explain how she contracted HIV.
Most of the injections like in Davis’s case were given whenever they were treated for malaria.
Nyando District has one the highest HIV prevalence ratio which means whenever she was admitted at the district hospital some years back she might have been exposed to syringe re use. They are also requesting the government to investigate and assist them get compensation.
Then there is the case of Emmanuel Murage, an 8 year-old born at a District hospital in Central Province. 
Emmanuel was also recently tested HIV positive while attending TB clinic at Mbagathi District Hospital in Nairobi early this year.
His parents, both HIV- are full of questions as to how their child could have been infected. They have gone for testing several times and still haven’t overcome the fact that their child is HIV positive yet they are HIV negative.
They too believe their child could have been infected while going for malarial treatment at the local district hospital. All the time they went for treatment they received an injection.
An unnamed source at the hospital says that because of lack of enough personnel, they are at times overwhelmed by demand and are always prone to re-using syringes sometimes through honest mistakes.
“Work can be too much, fatigue can call, imagine sometimes one nurse serving 100 patients. Sometimes I even prick myself, you can’t avoid it.” says the nurse.
Documents at the hospital show they all use syringes manufactured by BD, a US company and the largest producer of syringes in the world.
This is confirmed by Dr Nicholas Muraguri, Head, Division of Health Promotions and Education, Ministry of Health.
According to Dr Muraguri, the risks associated with unsafe injections are real.
He says health workers in the country acknowledge injury caused by unsafe injections.
In a possible move to stem such occurrences, the Ministry of Health recently launched a policy that is to guide safe use of and disposal of waste syringes in the country.
According to the Director of Medical Services, Dr James Nyikal, the policy aims at facilitating operationalisation of medical injections and ensures safety of injection practices.
He said implementation of the policy is tied to improvement of health care services in the country and hopes to see less patients leave health facilities free from the sickness that brought took them their in the first place and most importantly, “never with new infections that are acquired from indiscriminate use of syringes”.
The WHO estimates that 16 billion injections are given annually worldwide, 70 percent of these injections are unnecessary and unsafe.In Kenya, an average of 1.5 injections is given per person annually.
A study commissioned by the US’s Centre for Disease Control, JSI and the Ministry of Health shows that health care providers often prescribe injections unnecessarily.
Patients on the other hand demand for injections without question.
The question now however is what is to be done to children like Davis and Sellina, children who are very sick at no fault of their own?
Could the infections be related to the syringes in use?
Under United States and international law any product entering the stream of commerce must be rendered safe for its intended use.
After much prodding by international stakeholders, BD manufacturers were forced to develop non-reusable syringes for immunization but only made this available through limited settings.
This means that none of these ever come to countries such as Kenya. According to stakeholders, all syringes shipped to Kenya and most developing nations are syringes that can never be sold in the US market because of the US law.
This is akin to a US company sending expired pharmaceuticals to Kenya. Why do they sell to Africa what they can never use in their own countries? Asks a stakeholder. Is it that African life is cheaper than that of an American?
Currently international human rights attorneys are considering filing cases on behalf of the affected children in Africa for BD’s violation of both US and international law.
Additionally because of the seriousness of these claims, a criminal investigation in the US maybe forthcoming because of the violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
