As the data in Chapter 4 clearly show, injection use is very prevalent in the countries involved in the study. Now we turn to the question of whether these injections were an appropriate form of treatment, and whether they were administered under adequate hygienic conditions. The appropriate use of injections is defined here as:
• the use of injection as part of a treatment only when it is deemed necessary from a biomedical point of view (referred to as medical appropriateness of injections; 6.1);
• the provision of safe and clean injections, i.e. in accordance with the international standards of hygiene (hygienic appropriateness; 6.2).
For a continuation of the discussion of the study results, we will follow the indicators presented in Chapter 2.2. When appropriate, we will also refer to the results of a study in Thailand (WHO/DAP/94.8) where similar indicators were used.