H-Guarder

red dot
red dot award: design concept 2008

design:

Yang Bing

H-Guarder is a new type of disposable syringe with a rubber fitting, which has been designed to eliminate the risk of infection.

In some developing countries, it is common practice to reuse syringes by simply changing the needle. This is mainly due to the fact that the cost of each injection is very high in these countries. Such a practice might result in back flow of fluids from the contaminated needle into the syringe, which is then transferred into the next patient. This allows diseases to be transmitted. As medical waste management and disposal processes in some developing countries are not perfect, unauthorised repackaging of needles and syringes for re-sale is also common.

Each year, syringe re-use in developing nations results in about 25 million new infections – HIV, hepatitis B, hepatitis C and viral hemorrhagic fevers such as Ebola – leading to thousands of deaths.

H-Guarder is able to change this situation because the injection fluid is stored in a suction fluid reservoir and doesn’t touch the syringe. The suction fluid reservoir is made of resilient rubber. When the healthcare practitioner sucks the injection fluid into the syringe, the suction fluid reservoir will expand like a balloon. Once the needle is used, the fluid reservoir cannot be restored to its former condition; it becomes a rubber membrane like a condom. Thus, although the syringe can be re-used, the needle cannot.

In addition to safeguarding the health and lives of patients, H-Guarder also offers other advantages: cost savings, energy and material savings (as the number of disposable syringes will be reduced), and environmental protection (as the readily disposed regular syringes are not degradable or recyclable).