Re: Stuck myself with the cat's lancet

On Sun, 22 Jun 2008 02:01:35 -0700 (PDT), dumb_fi****e99
<dumb_fi****e99@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:

>
>I change my lancets.  It's a cleanliness thing, like getting the
>old food off your dishes before putting new food on them.

Poor analogy. There isn't any rotten food on the tip of my
lancet; just a tiny scrap of my own dried blood. Nor have I
ever had any infection from it. Nor has there ever been a
re****ted case of infection from re-use of a lancet by the
same person that I am aware of. 

Several of us searched through Medline and Highwire a few
years ago when this perennial subject came up. IIRC there
was a case in the USA where two elderly ladies effectively
shared a lancet. 

There were also several cases in Nursing Homes where lancets
were being changed between tests but infections occurred
because the nacelle of the lancet holder was not being
cleaned between tests. That is a point well worth
remembering if you test a friend or relative.

This is one I just found on a quick search, again related to
Nursing Homes, which is inconclusive: "Although no component
of the lancets or injection devices was shared among
residents, op****tunities for HBV contamination of diabetes
care supplies were identified.
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/502057

And this is one which implies that re-using syringes isn't
much of a problem either:
http://tinyurl.com/57mx55
or
http://www.nursingresearchonline.com/pt/re/nnr/abstract.00006199-198711000-00008.htm;jsessionid=LpGpqtjGfTZbkTdkdlJ7fKvTSC7LXSTjdz4PKBrnFvqycjHndBC9!2016747336!181195628!8091!-1

We didn't find any other re****ts. Let me know if you do.



Cheers, Alan, T2, Australia.
--
d&e, metformin 1500mg, ezetrol 10mg 
Everything in Moderation - Except Laughter.
http://loraldiabetes.blogspot.com

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alan_s/
http://loraltravel.blogspot.com
(On Indian Roads)