In December 2014, Yem Chrin, an unlicensed Cambodian doctor, was charged with murder. By reusing the same syringe, he had infected over 270 people in a remote community in the Battambang province, from the ages of two to 82, with HIV. While many instances may not be so high-profile, reusing syringes is a major way HIV and other diseases can be transmitted. A 2014 WHO report estimated that in 2010, as many as 33,800 people were infected with HIV, up to 1.7 million with hepatitis B virus, and 315,000 with hepatitis C virus, through the reuse of syringes in healthcare settings. “In some countries where resources are very limited, it became clear that people were reusing syringes,” Lisa Hedman, project manager at the World Health Organization, told me. “There was an ingrained belief that you could use the same syringe for members of the same family and that it didn’t matter […] When you’re bringing healthy people into a facility and injecting them with something to help them not get sick, if you send them away with a disease that’s actually pretty terrible.”

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