Sultana Habibullah, Salahuddin Afsar.
Waste disposal of government health-care facilities in urban area of Karachi - A KAP Survey.
Pak J Med Res Jan ;46(1):1-4.

Background: Waste produced by health- care facilities can be broadly divided into two categories, non-infectious waste comprises 75% to 90% of the total waste, is non-risk health waste, can be disposed of like other waste in municipal landfills whereas infectious waste comprises10 % to 25 % consist of syringes, needles, chemicals, body parts, drugs etcs, needs treatment before disposal. Objectives: To find out knowledge, attitude and practice of personnel involved in waste disposal of health-care facilities. Setting and sample size: Cross-sectional, hospital based survey conducted on 137 personnel involved in waste management of 68 randomly selected health -care facilities, in urban area of Karachi. Results: Data of 9 hospitals, 11 maternity homes and 29 dispensaries, comprising 137 sanitary workers showed that knowledge of all (100%) workers about hospital waste management was poor whereas attitude of 38% and practice of only 2 % was good. The study further showed that 24.5% health-care facilities disposed infectious and non-infectious waste without any treatment into public dustbins, 73.7% sanitary workers carry waste in open buckets for final disposal. None of the sanitary workers have undergone routine medical check-ups except when ill, 67.9% were not provided any protective equipment. It was also found that 96.4% were not interested in health education for the safe disposal of health-care facilities waste rather they were just doing their jobs for their earning. Conclusion: Infectious and non-infectious waste were collected together and disposed off in municipal landfills; while liquid waste is disposed off into the sewerage system without any treatment. The study showed that the knowledge, attitude and practice of personnel involved in health care facilities` waste management are extremely poor and proper facilities for management of hospital waste are almost non-existent in Karachi.

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