Guinea: Sorting biomedical waste to benefit man’s health and the environment
8 Aug 2012 Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, Health and nutrition...Guinea
Since the end of 2011, Terre des hommes has been working to improve the water, hygiene and sanitation conditions in seven health centres in two communities of Conakry (Ratoma and Dixinn). Currently, Tdh has been able to convince the government to sign agreements and draft agreements on the practical details of hygiene in the health centres, to supply training courses and material in these centres and to build or restore sanitation structures. Now the time has come to sort out the problems of biomedical waste management, a source of infection for patients and others.
If hygiene and sanitation in general constitute a worry, the handling of medical waste from the treatment of infectious diseases remains a constant danger at a level of health and wellbeing of people and also of the environment. According to the most recent assessment of the Ministry of Health and Public Hygiene (2011), all the sanitation structures in the country apply the standards of biomedical waste handling procedures far too loosely.
So as to challenge the correct management of treatment residue, Terre des hommes organises workshops for in-depth training to be given to health workers on the handling of biomedical waste products (from their origin to their removal). Under the auspices of the National Authority of Public Hygiene, this type of training aims at teaching and alerting health staff about the dangers of hospital waste, and at the best ways of eliminating them with respect to the health of all concerned and the environment (sorting, packaging, storage, transport, treatment, elimination, research and the development of more efficient technology and practices that respect the environment, etc.). These training courses combine theory and practice, with reports and discussions, working in groups and visits in the field.
