The Safe Injection Practices Coalition is comprised of patient advocacy organizations, foundations, provider associations and societies and industry partners. The Coalition is in the process of developing a national pilot public health education and awareness campaign aimed at both healthcare providers and the public to advance and promote safe injection practices, especially in outpatient settings.
The Coalition was established in June 2008 to address the lack of understanding and adherence to the most basic safe injection practices in nonhospital settings. Issues of concern include the common reuse of syringes and misuse of multidose vials. Coalition partners include the following organizations:
Unsafe injection practices by U.S. healthcare professionals have exposed more than 60,000 patients to life-threatening hepatitis B or C over the past decade, according to a groundbreaking review by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published in this month's edition of the Annals of Internal Medicine. See press release below for further details.
Press Release
New Study Confirms Cases of Unsafe Injection Practices (PDF)
CDC Article
Nonhospital Health Care–Associated Hepatitis B and C Virus Transmission: United States, 1998-2008
Also see:
Campaign Addresses Unsafe Injection Practices
Nurse.com, March 9, 2009