TESTS FOR NEEDLE BOY

A NINE-year-old boy is awaiting the results of medical tests after he trod on a discarded syringe at a bayside beach.

"Drug users are stupid people," young victim Dylan Crump of Seaford said yesterday.

"The bin was just 20 metres away.  They could have put it in the bin."

The needle stuck in Dylan's left heel.

"I tried to squeeze the bad blood out of my foot.  Dad said that might help," he said.

He knows he could get sick if the needle contained any diseases.

Parents Darren and Katie are hesitating to tell him just how sick he could get.

The syringe that pricked Dylan on Wednesday night was on the beach, just metres from the water.

The family had spent the afternoon at Seaford beach and were getting ready to pack up when Dylan stepped on the needle as he was about to put on his sandals.

Wrapping the syringe before putting it in a bin, the Crumps rushed the boy to Frankston Hospital, where he had blood tests and injections for hepatitis B and C.

Mr Crump said he often saw syringes on Seaford foreshore and wore shoes when walking down to the beach.

"What do we do now? Wear them the whole time, in the water?" he asked.

Mr Crump called on councils and the government to do more to reduce the number of dumped syringes.

There should be greater pressure put on needle exchange services so more used needles were handed in and collected.

"It's shocking, the number of syringes around here," Mr Crump said.

"We've got some beautiful beaches here but there's always evidence of drug use.  We see syringes here all the time.

"Drug users don't realise an infected syringe could be a life sentence for someone."

Dylan and his brothers - Jake, 7, and Dalton, 3 - have had to learn about the dark side of drug-taking from an early age.

Two years ago Dylan brought home some syringes in a box he found in a lane on the way home from school and asked his dad what they were.

Shocked his children had been in contact with the syringes, Mr Crump sat them down and told them not to touch needles because they could get sick if they were pricked.

Syringes often litter a lane at the back of the family's house, through which the children walk to school.

Needles are also scattered in the toilets at the local oval, where the children play football.

Dylan said the scare would not stop him going to the beach.