Marc Koska’s Safe Injection Campaign Set to Save Millions of Lives in India

Safepoint UK’s “One Injection, One Syringe” message comes to India on a grand scale End Quote

We intend to empower the people of India by opening their eyes to the dangers of reusing syringes

(1888PressRelease) November 12, 2008 - East Sussex: Marc Koska OBE, (the British inventor of the single-use auto-disable syringe), together with his charity SafePoint UK, is embarking upon a one-week life-saving healthcare education mission to India on an enormous and unprecedented scale, starting 14 November 2008.

According to a recent study by Indian Clinical Epidemiology Network (IndiaCLEN), around 65% of injections administered in India are unsafe – because they are performed with reused or unsterile equipment.

Health problems resulting from unsafe injections worldwide, according to these annual figures from the World Health Organization, has reached epidemic proportions:

• 230,000 HIV infections
• 1,000,000 Hepatitis C infections
• 21,000,000 Hepatitis B infections

Resulting in:

• 1,300,000 deaths

Marc set up SafePoint Trust in 2006 to educate the public on the dangers of re-using syringes with its “One Injection, One Syringe” message, in order to reduce the misery, illness and deaths being needlessly caused through unsafe injections.

On 14th November 2008, Marc will lead a SafePoint team to India with the aim of informing hundreds of millions throughout that country of the fatal consequences of re-using syringes, by means of the SafePoint-produced public information film (or public service announcement) called ‘Sachin’. This is the moving story, narrated by Dr Kiran Bedi, the highly celebrated Indian social activist, about Sachin - the little boy who contracts HIV through the reuse of a syringe by his doctor. The film leaves no doubt that prevention is better than cure.

Click here to watch the film in English:
http://www.sharenow.com/base/content/48564/

Click here to watch the film in Hindi:
http://www.sharenow.com/base/content/48563/

SafePoint claims that it will be the biggest media buyer throughout India for that week (14-21 November 2008), covering an incredible:

• 14 hours of prime TV broadcast across 23 channels

• Radio broadcasts from Dr Kiran Bedi spanning 160 cities, playing 28 times in each, making a total of 4,480 broadcasts

• 307 cinemas that will screen ‘Sachin’ 4 times per day per cinema, making a total of 8,596 screenings

In addition, the SafePoint team, split into four groups, will hold concurrent press conferences in Delhi, Hyderabad, Jaipur and Chandigarh, commencing 14 November. In total, the teams will cover 14 regions over a gruelling four days.

Preventing the devastating effect that unsafe injections have on innocent people’s lives is the driving force behind Marc’s tireless campaign. SafePoint offers a solution to the problem by informing the next generation and by raising awareness about this silent epidemic. The charity’s educational campaigns on injection safety have the bold aim of ensuring that the 16 billion medical injections given globally every year are given safely.

Focused and passionate social entrepreneur, Marc Koska, who has already been credited with saving well over 5.5 million lives through the invention of his auto-disable syringe, hopes that many more millions of lives will soon be saved as a result of his forthcoming campaign in India. The campaign is also expected to bring about major changes for the better in the way global healthcare is administered.

“We will be asking the public and legislators of India to sit up and listen to our life-saving message,” says Marc. “We intend to both empower the people of India by opening their eyes to the dangers of reusing syringes, as well as to increase demand for the implementation of legislation in this field. This is paramount to our campaign.”

Marc Koska, OBE
Inventor of the single-use auto-disable syringe, social entrepreneur, Marc Koska, is the founder of SafePoint Trust and was awarded the Order of the British Empre in 2006 for his contribution to healthcare.
http://www.marckoska.com

Dr Kiran Bedi
Dr Kiran Bedi is an award-winning Indian social activist and one of the most celebrated and widely known police officers of the Indian Police Force (now retired). She was awarded the Mother Teresa Memorial National Award for Social Justice in 2005.
http://www.kiranbedi.com

SafePoint Trust
SafePoint Trust is a registered UK charity that has the aim of solving healthcare problems through education, predominantly in the developing world and focusing on injection safety.
http://www.safepointtrust.org

For more information, please contact:

Ginny Simpson
SafePoint UK
The Granary
Pippingford
East Sussex
TN22 3HW
United Kingdom

Tel: + 44 (0)1825 713 722
Fax: + 44 (0)1825 713 838
Mob: +44 (0)7595 206923
Email: info ( @ ) safepointtrust dot org
Web: http://www.safepointtrust.org

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