It's worse than this....they re-use them on patients. Which of course spreads disease.
There's such a scarcity of medically trained staff, (and supplies), that locals are brought in to assist, who bring with them their beliefs and superstitions. So even the training that is given doesn't address these superstitions which will always trump medicine.
Just remembered that I said, in my account of the Peace Corps volunteer of my acquaintance in the 1970s who resigned in disgust, that Zimbabwe was the country where he had been sent. But it was the other “Z” country, Zaire.
caww, regarding your comment about the shortage of medical personnel: I remember reading many, many years ago that having competent medical workers was a problem in South American countries because what many of the duties a nurse is expected to perform were considered manual labor and, therefore, looked down on by educated people.
So even nursing, a respectable profession in our country, would be shunned by those who would be intellectually capable of performing its many tasks.
I have not seen any articles that site this as the root of the problem in African countries, but perhaps it is also at play there.