An additional and substantial sharps-related problem in developing countries is disease transmission, which occurs due to reuse of improperly cleaned and sterilized syringes, needles, lancets, and other sharps, since billions of procedures using contaminated equipment are given each year in developing countries. High rates of blood borne infections occur in health care workers and IV-drug users. The most frequently injected medications were antibiotics. There is a large market for injections, and the laws of supply and demand ensure that syringes and needles are available wherever there are buyers. In unregulated environments, elaborate enterprises have grown up to divert used syringes from the waste stream for reprocessing and sale back into unsuspecting markets.
Syringes are readily available from street vendors and druggists' stalls.
Apart from legitimate health care providers in the public and private sector, all manner of unqualified and unscrupulous persons are willing to help meet the demand for injections.