HIDEOUS facial ulcers were common in Africa in the 1950s. Then injectable
penicillin arrived to eradicate the congenital syphilis that caused them. Hot on
its heels came injectable chloroquine to fight malaria.
The key to these treatments was the hypodermic syringe. Syringes had at last
become cheap enough for the World Health Organization to encourage widespread
use of the new wonder drugs. But syringes were still a precious item. Many
health workers reused them, often without being able to sterilise them between
injections.
This may have spelled catastrophe. An internationally respected AIDS
researcher is suggesting that through the repeated use…
