| Subject: Jet Injectors Capable of Transmitting Blood-Borne Pathogens |
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Date Posted: Tue, August 28 2001, 15:19:58 PDT
Jet Injectors Capable of Transmitting Blood-Borne Pathogens
August 03, 2001
by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - Jet injectors may be ideal for mass immunization programs but not until design refinements eliminate their capacity to transmit blood-borne infections, say researchers working in England.
The injectors, which are needleless systems that penetrate skin with high-pressure fluid, have potential advantages over needles and syringes, but P.N. Hoffman and associates at the Laboratory of Hospital Infection, London, sought to determine whether they might have a major disadvantage as well.
They used a highly sensitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to detect whether small amounts of blood and fluid remained in the jet injector after injecting inert buffer into calves.
All four injectors tested - two with reusable heads and direct skin contact, one with single-use injector heads, and one with an injector head that discharged at a distance from the skin - contained at least 10 pl of blood, enough to transmit hepatitis B infection, reported Hoffman and coworkers ("A model to assess the infection potential of jet injectors used in mass immunisation," Vaccine, July 2001;19(28-29):4020-4027).
"The source of the contamination was consistent with contamination by efflux of injected fluid and blood from the pressurized pocket in tissue that is formed during injection," reported Hoffman and coauthors. "This insight should inform the design of safe jet injectors."
For more information about this study contact P.N. Hoffman, Laboratory of Hospital Infection, Central Public Health Laboratory, 61 Colindale Ave., London NW9 5HT, UK.
Key points reported in this study include: * Needleless jet injector systems are potentially beneficial for mass immunization programs, but they may transfer blood-borne viruses * Researchers used a highly sensitive ELISA to evaluate whether small volumes of blood remained in the jet injectors after injecting calves with a buffer solution * All four injector models tested transmitted more than 10 pl of blood, the minimum amount required for hepatitis B transmission, and the quality of the blood was consistent with efflux from the pressurized pocket created by the jet injector
This article was prepared by Vaccine Weekly editors from staff and other reports.
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