startup series
S
ince birth to the deathbed,
injections play an
important role in our life.
Vaccination, immunization,
various ailments need
undesirable injections and we
have to accept unwillingly. More
importantly, the exposed deadly
contaminated needles of used
syringes and the needle stick
injuries caused by such syringes,
are responsible as a primary source
of the most dreadful diseases like
HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis
C, tuberculosis as well as other
communicable diseases. Several
governments across the world have
started adopting legislation that
restricts the frequency of needle-
stick injuries (NSIs). WHO’s Global
Health Initiative for Needle Safety
is urging countries to transition by
2020 to the exclusive use of the new
“smart” syringes.
In this background, a family in
India collectively undertook the
WHO’s recent report on the subject
as a missionary challenge and
consistently worked with a zeal to
find out a most suitable solution
to effectively curb the menace
of unsafe injections. The family
of five includes two sisters, Ms
Pratibha Rathore and Ms Bharati
Rathore, their brother Mr Jai Hind
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BioVoiceNews | August 2017
Rathore, their parents, Dr Neelam
Rathore, presently working as
Medical Officer in a State Ayurvedic
Hospital under the Government of
Uttar Pradesh and Dr B C Rathore
who is a senior Government Officer
under the Ministry of Commerce
and Industry, Government of India.
In their quest to find a viable
solution, the innovator family
initiated their thorough research in
2006. After seeking answers their
questions, they finally arrived at
a conclusion that incorporation
of any retraction mechanism in
a syringe containing three basic
components i.e. barrel, plunger
with piston and needle with needle
guard, might never be a costless
process, hence the retractable
syringes were bound to be far
costlier than any ordinary syringe.
Eureka Moment
During 2013, while discussing the
matter, a new idea sparked in their
discussions that why should we not
separate the retraction mechanism
from syringe and reuse it frequently
to bring down its cost with each
and every reuse. This was really a
eureka moment in their journey,
which entirely metamorphosed
the whole scenario. They further