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Using Ebola as a Lens to Examine Medical Waste Sterilization
Author(s) -
Corse Teija,
Thomas Kevin,
Broderick John,
Kabiri Nina Shaafi,
Margulies Joshua,
Masri Taha,
McCullen Justin,
McMahon Maureen
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
world medical and health policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.326
H-Index - 11
ISSN - 1948-4682
DOI - 10.1002/wmh3.164
Subject(s) - medical waste , incineration , sterilization (economics) , waste management , biomedical waste , medicine , hazardous waste , waste disposal , business , medical emergency , engineering , health care , economic growth , exchange rate , economics , foreign exchange market , finance
The Ebola outbreak in the Fall of 2014 exposed issues surrounding the medical waste disposal of Category A substances. Current regulations by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Transportation on the disposal of Category A medical waste state that the waste must be sterilized before disposal. Approved methods of sterilization are autoclaving and incineration. For hospitals that do not have on‐site autoclaves large enough to sterilize the immense amount of waste, they must contract with companies to transport the waste to an off‐site sterilization center. Hospitals are required to follow the UN system of triple‐packaging medical waste for transportation. Hospitals in the United States that treated Ebola patients during the outbreak faced the issue of having to transport an immense amount of waste to off‐site facilities. A focus on medical waste sterilization has led to the development of new technologies that can allow hospitals to sterilize their increased amount of medical waste on‐site. These new technologies have the potential to better prepare hospitals for Category A infection outbreaks, and help limit the risk of both in‐hospital exposure and out‐of‐hospital exposures that can occur during waste transportation.