Guest guest Posted December 31, 2009 Report Share Posted December 31, 2009 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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