Ebola: hospitals have still NOT solved the dangerous medical waste problem.
Last edited Thu Oct 2, 2014, 03:50 PM - Edit history (1)
But the CDC says they are "days away" from a solution. The CDC has been telling us for months how well prepared they are. So how come they didn't have a plan for the mountains of highly contagious medical waste?
The problem is that garbage companies are barred by law from handling dangerous medical waste, and there are only 4 large incinerators capable of burning this kind of waste in the country.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/24/us-health-ebola-usa-hospitals-insight-idUSKCN0HJ0AD20140924
Part of Emory's solution was to bring in one of the university's large-capacity sterilizers called an autoclave, which uses pressurized steam to neutralize infectious agents, before handing the waste off to its disposal contractor for incineration.
Few hospitals have the ability to autoclave medical waste from Ebola patients on site.
"For this reason, it would be very difficult for a hospital to agree to care for Ebola cases - this desperately needs a fix," said Dr Jeffrey Duchin, chair of the Infectious Diseases Society of America's Public Health Committee.
Dr. Gavin Macgregor-Skinner, an expert on public health preparedness at Pennsylvania State University, said there's "no way in the world" that U.S. hospitals are ready to treat patients with highly infectious diseases like Ebola.
"Where they come undone every time is the management of their liquid and solid waste," said Macgregor-Skinner, who recently trained healthcare workers in Nigeria on behalf of the Elizabeth R. Griffin Research Foundation.
http://www.abreakingnews.com/health/us-nears-solution-for-safe-disposal-of-ebola-medical-waste-h238641.html
The United States is days away from settling the critical question of how hospitals should handle and dispose of medical waste from Ebola patients, a government official said on Wednesday.
Experts have warned that conflicting U.S. regulations over how such waste should be transported could make it very difficult for U.S. hospitals to safely care for patients with Ebola, a messy disease that causes diarrhea, vomiting and in some cases, bleeding from the eyes and ears.
Safely handling such waste presents a dual challenge for regulators, who want to both prevent the accidental spread of the deadly disease and avert any deliberate attempts to use it as a bioweapon.
Most U.S. hospitals are not equipped with incinerators or large sterilizers called autoclaves that could accommodate the large amounts of soiled linens, contaminated syringes and virus-spattered protective gear generated from the care of an Ebola patient, said Dr. Jeffrey Duchin, chair of the Infectious Diseases Society of America's Public Health Committee.
SNIP
= new reply since forum marked as read
somehow i knew it would rollout this way...
I was a kid in the San Fernando Valley when every backyard had its own incinerator, and it certainly contributed to smog. I'm not sorry that ended.
Oy yoy yoy. Our public health infrastructure is a lot less prepared for epidemic disease than I had hoped. They used to know how to deal with it ... but I think vaccinations and antibiotics (aka "miracle drugs"
ended up making us complacent.
I hope the system can gear up quickly.
