Unsafe Injection Practices and Disease Transmission

1 new needle and syringe are used to draw medication. 2 When the needle is used on an HCV-infected patient, backflow from the injection contaminates the syringe. Changing the needle does not prevent contamination of the syringe. 3 When re-used to obtain medication, the contaminated syringe can contaminate the medication vial. 4 If the contaminated vial is used for other patients, they can become infected with HCV. (Although this example uses HCV, these same principles apply to other bloodborne pathogens.)