Tanzania becomes first country to use self-destructing syringes; designer hopes others will follow suit

"Tanzania is to become the first country in the world to move exclusively to using syringes that self-destruct after a British entrepreneur played the health minister undercover footage of children being injected with used needles," the Guardian reports. "Marc Koska, the designer of an auto-disable syringe and founder of a charity called Safe-Point," who went to the Tanzanian government with the video, "hopes to persuade four other countries in east Africa to follow suit -- Kenya, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda -- before he takes on the rest of the world," the newspaper writes.

"Although auto-disable syringes are now as cheap to make, it involves changing over the production process, which is expensive," the Guardian notes, adding, "Companies also sell fewer syringes in the long run -- because people get well." According to the newspaper, "He has now sold three billion of them, and last month, he finally signed a contract with the world's biggest syringe-maker to produce his auto-disable design" (Boseley, 10/28).