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A US company has been awarded a contract to supply safety syringes to five African countries, as part of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), President George W Bush's global HIV/AIDS initiative.
Retractable Technologies will supply VanishPoint syringes to Botswana, Cote D'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Kenya and Nigeria, under the initiative's first contract to be awarded for safety syringes.
Thomas Shaw, the CEO of Retractable, said in a statement: "This contract represents a milestone in the fulfilment of the original mission of our company, which is to halt the spread of HIV/AIDS and other blood-borne diseases in Africa by preventing syringe reuse and needle stick injuries."
PEPFAR was launched in 2003 to prevent seven million new HIV infections in Africa and the Caribbean.
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