Better health care: Ghana uses radiation technology to sterilize medical items

Infections acquired from improperly sterilized equipment are recognized as a major impediment to safe health care delivery, with consequences that are often deadly for patients. Radiation technology plays a major role in many countries in making medical equipment safer. "The use of nuclear applications, such as exposing medical items to gamma radiation, helps Ghana protect its people from avoidable sicknesses that can occur if items like syringes are not properly sterilized," said Abraham Adu-Gyamfi, Manager of the Radiation Technology Centre of the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission's Biotechnology and Nuclear Agriculture Research Institute in Accra.