Memorandum on immunological procedures which service personnel and their families may need at home and abroad.

  • M.O.D.
Date:
1968
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Memorandum on immunological procedures which service personnel and their families may need at home and abroad. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    23/132 (page 21)
    Instructions for the care, maintenance and sterilization of syringes Mass immunization procedure Injection technique Section 4 The choice, care, maintenance and sterilization of syringes used for immunological procedures 42 The Choice of Syringes and Needles (a) Syringes for use once only. The most suitable type of syringe which is available to all Service Vaccination Centres is the disposable plastic syringe, supplied sterile by the makers. This type of syringe is used once and discarded (para 54). (b) Syringes for re-use. Glass syringes for the injection of vaccines or of sensitivity test antigens should be of the all-glass type or all-glass except for a metal needle mount which is attached to the barrel either without the use of cement or with a heat resistant cement in accordance with British Standards. Glass syringes with a metal piston should not be used: they cannot be sterilized when assembled, are more liable to break on heating and are slow to cool after sterilization by heat. (c) Needles. Disposable needles, supplied sterile by the manufacturers, used once only and discarded immediately after use are the most suitable. A needle for intradermal injection should be short (half-inch), of narrow gauge and have a short bevel in accordance with British Standards. For subcutaneous or intramuscular injection a longer needle with a long bevel is preferable. 43 Segregation of Syringes (a) When disposable syringes are not available, it is essential that syringes used for injecting vaccines or sensitivity test antigens should be kept separate at all times from those used for aspirating infected or potentially infected fluids. (b) Syringes used in experiments or tests on animals must not be obtained from, or sent to, Central Sterile Syringe Supply Services, but should be cleaned and sterilized under separate arrangements (usually at the laboratory concerned). No syringe which has ever been used for injection of animals will be used on a human being. (c) Syringes used for Schick testing will not be used for other purposes and separate syringes must be kept for the test and control fluids (para 92). In particular Schick test syringes must not be used for performing the Mantoux test. The latter test has, in general, been superseded in the Services by the Heaf test (paras 103 to 105) but, if the use of it is requested, separate syringes and needles must be provided and these should not be used for any other purpose.