Safer syringes could avert 1.3 million deaths a year, especially in poorer countries where 40 per cent of all injections involve unsterilised reused needles, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Tuesday.

In a statement, the UN agency linked 33 per cent of new hepatitis B infections and two million new cases of hepatitis C each year to unsafe injections and needle-stick injuries by health workers.

Some five per cent of new HIV cases worldwide come from unsafe injections in medical settings, the WHO said, estimating that six billion injections are given with unsafe needles each year.

Many countries cannot afford to use syringes with safety features, which cost about 15 cents each compared to three cents for less sophisticated needles.

Howard Zucker, the WHO’s assistant director-general for health technology and pharmaceuticals, said that public health experts and donor governments would seek to encourage more procurement of safer syringes by poorer countries during a three-day conference in Geneva that opened on Tuesday.