Becton Dickinson & Company, the world's largest manufacturer of medical syringes and needles, said yesterday that it would pay $100 million to settle a competitor's accusations that it had illegally manipulated the hospital-supply market for years. The competitor, Retractable Technologies, a needle maker, had filed an antitrust suit saying it had been largely shut out of the hospital market for its products, which are intended to better protect health care workers from accidental nicks that can transmit blood-borne diseases. That suit had been scheduled to go to trial next week in a federal court in Texas.

NYTimes

During the past year, a group has argued that unsafe injections are a major if not the main mode of HIV-1 transmission in sub-Saharan Africa. We review the main arguments used to question the epidemiological interpretations on the lead role of unsafe sex in HIV-1 transmission, and conclude there is no compelling evidence that unsafe injections are a predominant mode of HIV-1 transmission in sub-Saharan Africa. Conversely, though there is a clear need to eliminate all unsafe injections, epidemiological evidence indicates that sexual transmission continues to be by far the major mode of spread of HIV-1 in the region. Increased efforts are needed to reduce sexual transmission of HIV-1.

The Lancet: Volume 363, Number 9407 07 February 2004

The Senate yesterday approved an amendment, sponsored by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), to the foreign operations appropriations bill (S 1426) that would require at least $75 million of the $15 billion global AIDS initiative to go toward curbing unsafe medical practices, the AP/Orlando Sentinel reports (McMurray, AP/Orlando Sentinel, 10/28). Although most AIDS organizations say that heterosexual contact has accounted for the majority of HIV cases in Africa, new studies claim that unsafe medical practices, such as injections and blood transfusions using unsterile needles, are a much greater threat.

Medilinks

In a Sept. 3 letter, a spokesman for the World Health Organization was reluctant to address the extent of the spread of HIV in Africa through unsafe medical practices. Nearly 1,000 people each day in Africa are infected with this deadly virus through contact with previously used injection equipment or through transfusions with contaminated blood products.

Washington Post

A shared razor may have spread HIV between two sisters who shared a razor to shave their legs, scientists said today. The report, in the journal Aids, is described as a "sobering" reminder that the disease can be spread in unusual ways. In this case, an 18-year-old girl from Australia caught the disease on the first occasion she had sex. Her 16-year-old sister later tested positive for the virus when she donated blood. Both teenagers had a particular subtype of the virus which is very rare in Australia, making it highly likely that one had infected the other

BBC News Online

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