Medical Waste Management

Medical Waste Management in Remote Areas

Medical (healthcare) waste management is a global challenge especially in low-income countries. If not well managed, infectious waste and sharps can have long-lasting impacts on human health, affecting not only waste handlers, but also the general public. This can potentially transmit diseases such as typhoid, hepatitis, risks of HIV, and other infections among patients, carers, healthcare workers and waste handlers. Improper waste management also contaminates the environment, polluting soil, air, and water sources with pathogenic microbes, which in turn affects plant and animal health, raising significant one-health concerns.

Data from the Ministry of health data shows that Uganda has approximately 6,940 health facilities (both public and private), with each facility estimated to generate over 92 kilograms of medical waste daily.

Additionally, according to National Drug Authority, there are over 3,000 pharmacies and 15,000 drug-shops with undocumented data on pharmaceutical waste. This waste includes expired, unused, spilt, and contaminated pharmaceutical products, as well as discarded items used in the handling of pharmaceuticals, such as bottles, boxes with residues, and drug vials.

While the Ministry of Health and National Drug Authority have policies and guidelines for managing healthcare wastes, their implementation remains limited, especially in remote areas. Medical waste in remote areas is often disposed in open pits, burned in the open air, buried, discharged into wastewater systems, or indiscriminately dumped with domestic waste. For instance, Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital has been highlighted as main polluter of River Rwizi, which serves as the primary source of domestic and industrial water for the greater Mbarara area.

At Remote Health, we are developing mechanisms to manage medical waste in remote areas, including providing essential equipment for proper segregation and storage of different waste categories, establishing decentralized collection infrastructures, and ensuring the safe disposal of hazardous and sharp medical waste.