Marc's Ink Talk Now On Line

See Marc's talk and learn the scale of the problem of syringe re-use. Does re-use only occur in third world countries? Find out here.......

Hear Marc's Talk on NY Brand Lab Radio

If you didn't get a chance to tune in to Marc's talk on NY Brand Lab Radio, don't worry! Click here to listen to the interview and hear SafePoints breaking news on Tanzania….

Marc's TEDMED Talk inspires Blog in Wall Street Journal

Marc had the pleasure of speaking at TEDMED in San Diego recently. To hear more about his talk and the global problem of syringe re-use, read the blog written by Katherine Hobson, in The Wall Street Journal.

Marc makes the top 10 Inspiring Summit Stories at The Daily Beast

Marc talking at The Innovators Summit

8. Marc Koska’s P.R. Campaign

One of the most inspiring things to come out of The Daily Beast Innovators Summit was the persistent argument from entrepreneurs that helping the world can be more than an act of grace—it’s also great business. Koska, for example, is the inventor of the K1 syringe, a non-reusable and auto-disposable syringe that took more than 17 years to develop but has since been credited with helping to save 9 million lives. In the developing world, Koska explains, the average syringe is reused four times, frequently in hospitals. One place where this problem was endemic was India, where 62 percent of injections in hospitals were carried out using dirty needles. Unfortunately, Koska just couldn’t get the minister of health to acknowledge the problem. “I asked for a meeting and he said no,” Koska recalls. “I asked him for another meeting and he said no…We hit a brick wall.” Rather than accept defeat, Koska started a PR campaign to shame the minister into reacting. “We made a film that dramatically showed the problem, and we were able to show this on television five and a half thousand times,” he says. “We had radio announcements from a very famous celebrity in India, we had 14 press conferences, 240 newspaper articles, and we were able to do that in a five-day period. Net result? “Seven hundred million people saw the message, and the minister saw me straightaway.” Soon after, the reluctant bureaucrat mandated the use of non-reusable needles (there are about 10 brands, aside from Koska’s); the law has now gone into effect in 11 Indian cities with an aggregate population of 250 million people.

To watch Marc at The Daily Beast click here: http://vimeo.com/16169642

Taken from "10 Inspiring Summit Stories" by Jacob Bernstein at The Daily Beast

SafePoint's website has been completely redesigned

Hope you like it....

The Climb Tanzania 2010: our High Altitude Health Assessments

Dr Jack Kreindler at 76 Harley Street, offered to give us a specialised High Altitude Assessment session to see whether we're up to the climb, both aerobically and anaerobically.

76 Harley Street is the most incredible and unique set up geared towards every aspect of personal health possible. One arm of that is one specifically geared towards the research and betterment of human performance, which is where we come in.

We were briefed on key aspects of the ascent by Jack Kreindler and tested by Jim Pate. We all thoroughly enjoyed the experience (in as much as anybody can whilst sitting on a bike wired up, gagged and going nowhere!) The experience was both fascinating and hideous and ended with us feeling happily capable but ravenously hungry.

We all now have a much clearer picture of what to expect and are all working hard to develop thighs like a prop forward, and eating for England.. well Tanzania actually.

Jim Pate, with Clare, assessing Nicoletta's performance

Nicoletta, the Italian Dynamo!

Clare, before kick-off

Me, wired up and gagged, and ready to go!

Catherine, setting the pace!

We are all very grateful to Jack Kreindler and Jim Pate of 76 Harley Street for the enormous support they have given SafePoint's Climb Tanzania 2010. By putting us through an incredibly thorough health assessment, it has enabled us to properly prepare for this infamously gruelling climb. So a big thank you to everyone at 76 Harley Street.

Anna x

About 76 Harley Street

76 Harley Street was established to set new standards in personalised medical and dental specialty care, diagnostics, screening and enhanced recovery - to prognose, prevent or get the very best outcomes. Their expertise now extends into coaching, human performance sciences, life-support / survival skills and high altitude pursuits for health promotion.

http://www.76harleystreet.com
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Keep up with Marc and SafePoint on Twitter, Vimeo, YouTube and Facebook

Join the SafePoint team online and receive all of Marc’s updates as and when they happen.

He and his colleagues are busily tweeting at twitter.com/marckoska and twitter.com/safepointtrust, plus two recently launched SafePoint video channels on Vimeo and YouTube. These are yet more outlets for all of Safepoint's powerful video footage (including a shocking undercover film of needle re-use captured in hospitals) and will continually evolve, so make sure you visit regularly.

If Facebook is more your thing, then connect with Marc here and with SafePoint here.

Use of unsterilised, reused syringes still rampant

The work of Marc Koska, OBE and his charity, SafePoint Trust, was recently featured in an article in The Times of India

PUNE: An average person receives 3 to 5 injections per year, and more than 50 per cent of these are being administered by unsterilised and reused syringes, said Marc Koska, CEO-founder, SafePoint Trust, UK. Koska was in the city to brief mediapersons about the rapid strides his organisation has made to address the biggest man-made threat of re-used syringes.

Although Union health minister Anbumani Ramadoss agreed that from April 30, 2009, all Central government hospitals under CGHS will completely switch to auto-disable syringes, complying with the existing ISO standard across all sectors, it remains a Herculean task to achieve the desired objective, said Koska.

"After the successful nation-wide campaign launched in November 2008, the decision to use AD syringes was hailed by one and all. However, the reality is very bitter. India is plagued by its own set of problems. On the one hand, health of the poor population, especially living in slums, are under severe threat as quacks mostly use re-used syringes. Lack of education, unhygienic conditions and poverty contribute to their misery," said Koska.

To read the full article, click here.
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Marc Koska: 1.3m reasons to re-invent the syringe

Malaria kills 1 million people a year? Reused syringes kill 1.3 million a year? Holy crap. Those are the sort of numbers that remind me in no uncertain terms that I live in a privileged world.

OK, a few minutes in and I'm convinced this is one of the most terrifying TED talks I've seen.

Sometimes we joke about planned obsolescence, or about items breaking just as they come out of warranty. Marc Koska's one-time-use (enforced) syringes are that, but for the best of reasons. This is the kind of thing that will save lives.

Excerpted from reviewingted.posterous.com

The hard-hitting facts about the re-use of syringes

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• killing 1.3 million people a year by transmitting viruses from one patient to another

• killing more people than malaria, which currently kills about 1 million a year

• causing 23 million cases of Hepatitis B a year and, consequently, enormous treatment costs.
  

• syringes, on average, are used around 4 times in the developing world

Source: Marc Koska's DLD10 talk

The World Health Organization message for Injection Safety

Click to enlarge image

Nikon Owner magazine captures Marc’s work in India

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Single Use - A Modern Morality Tale by Gillian Greenwood, Nikon Owner magazine -

Simon Stafford, Technical Editor of Nikon Owner magazine, accompanied Marc and members of SafePoint for ten days and recounted his experiences via a series of beautifully shot pictures capturing vibrant people and places, but also devastating evidence of needles being re-used.

He saw first-hand harrowing scenes in surgeries and clinics with medical staff throwing blood-stained needles in buckets under counters ready to be used again on many sick and frail members of the public waiting outside. Moving from New Delhi, to Pune and then Jaipur, Simon witnessed Marc and his team delivering their powerful message to the public on the effects that unsafe injections can have.