The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has issued a safety warning over use of lancing devices in nursing homes and care homes. Transmission of hepatitis B between nursing home residents has been linked with the use of the wrong sort of lancing device. This has resulted in acute infections and deaths.

The MHRA has stated that:

"For blood glucose monitoring nursing home and care home staff must only use:

disposable single-use lancing devices (these are used once and then the entire lancing device is discarded)
or
a non-disposable lancing device which is intended for use on multiple patients and is used with disposable single-use lancets".

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