Jet Injectors Capable Of Transmitting Blood-borne Pathogens.(Brief Article)

2001 AUG 8 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) --

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).