مقاله انگلیسی همه گیری COVID-19 استراتژی مدیریت پسماند جامع و همه گیر و بهداشتی
Highlights
Abstract
Graphical abstract
Keywords
1. Introduction
2. Methods used to conduct the mini-review
3. Composition of healthcare waste
4. Persistence rate of COVID-19 virus and its possible transmission through healthcare solid waste
5. Waste management strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic
6. Challenges
7. Potential for healthcare solid waste management strategies
8. Conclusions
Funding
Ethical approval
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Declaration of competing interest
Acknowledgments
References
Abstract
Healthcare waste comprises the waste generated by healthcare facilities, medical laboratories and biomedical research facilities. Improper treatment of this waste poses serious risks of disease transmission to waste pickers, waste workers, health workers, patients, and the community in general through exposure to infectious agents. Poor management of the waste emits harmful and deleterious contaminants into society. However, contamination of highly contagious agents such as the COVID-19 virus has created enormous instability in healthcare waste handling and subsequent recycling because of the volume of the waste generated and its contagious nature. Several countries have adopted safety measures to combat this contamination and manage healthcare waste; however, these measures are insufficient and vary depending on the context of the country. In addition, the WHO has set out guidelines for management of healthcare waste. These guidelines are helping to manage the highly contagious healthcare waste resulting from the current pandemic. Proper healthcare waste management may add value by reducing the spread of the COVID-19 virus and increasing the recyclability of materials instead of sending them to landfill. Disinfecting and sorting out healthcare waste facilitates sustainable management and allows their utilization for valuable purposes. This review discusses the different healthcare solid waste management strategies practiced in different countries, the challenges faced during this management, and the possible solutions for overcoming these challenges. It also provides useful insights into healthcare solid waste management scenarios during the COVID-19 pandemic and a possible way forward.
1. Introduction
After radiation waste, healthcare waste is considered the second most hazardous waste globally. It includes various forms of waste, both hazardous and non-hazardous, such as sharps, human body parts, blood, chemical waste, pharmaceutical waste, and medical devices (Rodriguez-Morales, 2013). All of this waste is produced mainly by hospitals, primary care facilities, laboratories, mortuaries, autopsy centers, laboratories, blood banks, nursing homes, and other medical locations (Pepin et al., 2014). It is generated during diagnosis, treatment, immunization of humans or animals, research, or the production or testing of biologicals. If not properly handled, it can have devastating effects on human health (Johannessen et al., 2000). During any infectious disease outbreak, the waste generated from healthcare facilities increases exponentially; as a result, special care must be taken by management in order to avoid troubling impacts (Ramteke and Sahu, 2020).
The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has arisen from the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes an acute respiratory disease (Mol and Caldas, 2020; WHO, 2019; WHO, 2020b); it was first reported in Wuhan, China (Wang et al., 2020) in December 2019. It has been acknowledged as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) (Wilder-Smith and Osman, 2020), and the virus has spread to almost all countries across the globe. The pandemic continues to be a significant public health threat worldwide. The rapid increase in the number of COVID-19 infected patients and the highly transmissible nature of the disease have led to a high number of hospitalizations.