Bacterial contamination of re-usable and disposable syringes and needles.

Re-usable glass and disposable plastic syringes and needles were tested for their sterility. Ninety-one re-usable glass, 111 disposable plastic syringes, 105 re-usable and 91 disposable needles were determined for microbial contamination by direct method using soy-bean-casein digest and fluid thioglycolate media. The positive results were 2.2 per cent (2/91), 0.9 per cent (1/111), 2.9 per cent (3/105) and 3.3 per cent (3/91) for re-usable and disposable syringes and needles, respectively. It is concluded that there is no difference in the rates of contamination of re-usable and disposable items.