High risk of hepatitis for those involved

[Guest guest]

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=216148

High risk of hepatitis for those involved

Thursday, December 31, 2009

Muhammad Qasim

Rawalpindi

Sanitary workers, scavengers — particularly children collecting garbage — and

low-grade staff of hospitals and clinics in town are at a high risk of getting

infected with viruses like hepatitis B, C and HIV because of their involvement

in the pilferage of hospital waste.

A survey conducted by ‘The News’ revealed that a number of sanitary workers and

low-grade staff at public sector and private hospitals are involved in the

pilferage of solid hospital waste, particularly syringes, plastic bags, bottles

and other equipment of the like that according to the health experts, is being

recycled or re-used.

Infections like hepatitis B, C among low class members of society certainly

cause the spread of the infectious diseased among masses.

Benazir Bhutto Hospital (BBH), Holy Family Hospital (HFH) and District

Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital have formed within them infection control committees

that look after the proper disposal of hospital waste, yet none of the allied

hospitals could manage to put a check on its pilferage.

The administration of the allied hospitals provides the facility of an

incinerator at HFH to dispose of the hospital waste of BBH and DHQ Hospital, and

the allied hospitals are following a proper way to collect the waste to be

disposed of through the incinerator.

“We have placed three bins in each ward - one for biological waste, second for

common waste and the third for used sharp equipments like syringes,” said

Director Emergency at BBH Dr Muhammad Mujeeb Khan while talking to ‘The News’

Wednesday. He added that the biological and sharps waste is sent to HFH for

incineration.

To a query, he, however, admitted that in majority of the public sector and

private hospitals, there is no highly effective way of checking the solid

hospital waste pilferage. “I myself ended up buying a packed syringe from open

market with a blood stain in it, which signifies that the recycling and re-using

of hospital waste is in practice.”

He said a few months back, a truck full of hospital waste was caught in Lahore

that was being taken away for recycling or re-use. He said in the past, he found

plastic bags full of used syringes in the flush tanks of the hospital that were

intended to be taken out of the hospital for selling purposes.

Dr Mujeeb said not only the allied hospitals but also those operating in the

private sector should follow the standard operating procedures for the disposal

of hospital waste and its pilferage should be checked properly. He admitted that

the number of sanitary workers getting infected with hepatitis B, C and HIV is

on the rise.

He said the practice could not be checked until the sanitary workers are

educated. “It is the need of the hour that low-grade staff, including sweepers

and sanitary workers, should be made aware that dealing in hospital waste might

infect them. In hospitals, the workers use plastic gloves but while dealing with

stolen hospital waste, they get pricked because of having no gloves and end up

getting infected,” he said.

He added that most of the low-grade workers do not or could not read, so they

should be given guidelines on job. “On-job training courses should be conducted

at all healthcare facilities for sanitary workers on a regular basis to stop

them from dealing illegally in hospital waste.”

Acting Medical Superintendent DHQ Hospital Dr Ejaz Sohail said the hospital

administration is following the procedure of cutting plastic bottles and

syringes but the pilferage of used hospital waste still could not be ruled out.

“If the community becomes aware of the risks of infections from hospital waste,

the re-usage of solid waste can be checked,” he said.

To a query, he said the scavengers and sanitary workers do sell hospital waste

to ‘parties’, cleaning and enabling it for re-use without knowing that they are

playing with human lives. “Children collecting hospital waste to sell and

sanitary workers doing business in hospital waste do not read newspapers or

watch TV, so there is a need to run some special awareness campaigns on the

subject, targeting them.”

Medical Superintendent BBH Dr Asif Qadir Mir, when contacted, said the infection

control committees at the allied hospitals although work on the collection of

hospital waste for incineration, yet they also have many other tasks to do. “For

checking the pilferage of hospital waste, every hospital should have a special

team, having 10-12 persons completely committed to the task.”

He said the government should direct the hospitals to run awareness workshops

for sanitary workers and low-grade staff on the subject.