PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa health department has started testing sterility of disposable surgical items and sutures used in operations and stitching of wounds to check spread of infections for the first time in the country.

“The health department has begun testing disposable surgical items before purchasing for the hospitals through high-tech imported machines to put brakes on infections,” Khalid Khan, the head of provincial Drug Testing Laboratory (DTL), told Dawn.

Previously there was no facility to determine the state of sterilisation of sutures used by surgeons internally as well as externally for stitching of wounds and cuts, he said.

“The upgradation of the laboratory, started one year ago, has enabled the pharmacists to determine the efficacy of needles and its length and to check their size and sterility,” said Mr Khan. He added that the machine was used to ascertain as to how much stretching and stress the sutures could withstand.

The move will put brakes on spread of infections in the province

He said that another vital item used by every hospitalised patient was intravenous cannula, meant to transfuse fluids and medicines to the body, would be put to test.

Mr Khan said that the DTL tested only regulated medicines through 40 drug inspectors, deployed in the province, but then there was an authentic method to analyse contents of disposable items and their sizes too. “Now the inspectors have started sending samples of disposable stuff, most of which are manufactured locally,” he said. He said that in Pakistan only army had the facility before.

Surgical disposable items, which previously remained out of purview of the DTL, had been covered by laws imposed by the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan, he said. He added that both absorbable and non-absorbable sutures, which were used for internal and external stitching respectively, could cause infection.

Microbial examination of the sutures, syringes and catheters etc shows any growth or infection in the items.

The health department purchased about Rs500 million drugs after on the recommendations of the expert committee, which tested all articles supplied by various bidders for the first time in line with the scientific approach, said a surgeon, who is member of the purchase committee for drugs.

As far sutures are concerned, these are imported from China and other countries and supplied to the hospitals after approval of panel of experts.

He said that installation of the facility was part of the government’s initiative to upgrade drug testing laboratory and provide quality medicines to the patients for which an amount of Rs45 million was being spent.

Another Rs300 million is being spent on establishment of three regional DTLs in Dera Ismail Khan, Swat and Abbottabad to provide prompt test facility. Currently, the DTL Peshawar receives samples from all districts and it takes a long time to receive the samples and send back the reports.

The doctors at the local hospitals say that they had serious concern over non-sterilisation of disposable items marketed by local manufacturers and had been asking to test quality of such items before allowing its sale.

“We have made several complaints to government about the abscesses caused by use of bad quality disposable syringes. Rise in hepatitis cases is mainly due to the sale of infectious syringes,” a surgeon said.

He said that suture, a costly stuff used in all forms of surgery, and other disposable items were being used blindly because there was no way to check its sterility and other specifications. “The new technology, which is only available with army, will help the provincial health department to reduce infections,” he said.

Published in Dawn, October 26th, 2015

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