One month ago, the LANCET (ScienceDirectRef: “Expanding safe waste management to public health systems” https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(18)32622-9), January 2019, Elsevier Ltd.) published a letter to the editor (see also attached). The letter points to the failure to sustain or expand immunization waste management infra-structure to all public health programmes. To stimulate an exchange of views ...

This is the fifth and last topic in my six-part Vaccine Supply Chain Futures series focused on the potential to address safety issues related to the management of sharps waste including syringe and needles. Progress of efforts to achieve safe infectious sharps disposal in many low to middle income countries is impeded by the lack of funding to establish an infrastructure of medical waste handling in the countries. Immunization generates a small fraction of the sharps waste in public h...

Immunization programs in low-income countries are facing the most ambitious targets of the last four decades: reach every child with existing and many new vaccines. The original immunization supply chains (iSCs) design, put in place in the 1970’s, is struggling to exceed an 80% coverage rate and is unable to support the increasing volume, complexity, bulk, and cost of vaccines. In recent years, the iSC community has recognized the need to encourage more comprehensive iSC redesigns to address ...

This posting is one of four, each discussing a different indicator. This post discusses vaccine utilisation efficiency. Another efficiency indicator measures the level of vaccine administered expressed as a percentage of the vaccine consumed (Doses ‘Consumed’ = ‘Doses ‘administered’ to clients + ‘Doses wasted’). This is the inverse of vaccine wastage. Overall vaccine wastage is the sum of: Doses in closed/sealed vials, condemned by expiry or exposure   Doses in opened vials, abandone...

I hope that you will disagree with me and tell me that medical waste disposal systems in low-to-middle income countries have advanced dramatically in the last ten years. But I have the impression is that the interest that existed in the first five years of the millennium has declined and that the national plans that were drawn up a decade ago were neither funded nor updated. It is surprising that, at this crucial moment in the struggle against the spread of Ebola, there has hardly been a men...

by Yves Chartier, WHO, and Olga Popova, Crucell Worldwide immunization programs have had an enormously positive impact on health and health care since 1974 when the World Health Assembly launched the Expanded Programme on Immunization. However, like all great achievements the effort has unveiled new challenges. One of the most serious has been the re-use of syringes without adequate sterilization. As this issue came to light in the 1950s, disposable syringes were developed to resolve the prob...

As a result of our posting on Tech Net we were made aware of a technique for melting syringes and suspending the needles in the innards of a plastic block formed by the melting plastic syringes. This technique eliminates exposed needles and reduces the volume of the waste by 70%. The technique is described in the article "Oven melting encapsulization of hypodermic needles by syringes" by T. Fortner, H. Wynn, H. Heffner and J. Colton, Journal of Medical Engineering and Technology 2009. ...

Many thanks to Ashley Iwanaga for sending in the latest UNDP GEF Healthcare Waste Management Project report. Dear Colleagues, The UNDP GEF Project on Healthcare Waste Management is excited to share its first Project Update report (in English, French, and Spanish). The goal of the project is to demonstrate best environmental practices and best available techniques for healthcare waste to avoid dioxin and mercury releases in eight countries: Argentina, India, Latvia, Lebanon, Philippines, ...

The Lagos State Waste Management Authority organised their fourth Medical Waste Summit, which was held on 26 and 27 October, 2009 at the National Arts Theatre Iganmu, Lagos with the theme “Safe Management of Healthcare Waste: The Time is Now”. This short report on the proceedings has been shared with the TechNet21 readers by Dr Abimbola O. SOWANDE, Country Director, USAID/AIDSTAR-One.

The Supply Chain Management Team within the USAID | DELIVER PROJECT is pleased to announce the availability of a new technical document, Logistics of Health Care Waste Management Information and Approaches for Developing Country Settings You can find the document on the USAID | DELIVER website http://www.deliver.jsi.com, or at the direct link here...

Seychelles injection safety and waste management assessment 25th June-7th July2009 Seychelles is a multi-ethnic tri-lingual state with its origin from three continents: Africa, Asia and Europe. It is an upper middle income developing country organised into 25 districts with a 2009 estimated midyear mid-year population of 87,409. Seychelles has been using predominantly disposable syringes and needles for both curative and preventive interventions including immunization and it is feared t...

Hello, I would like to enquire if someone has worked on setting up a manufacturing plant for safety boxes in Africa. If such an attempt has been made, what have the outcomes been. I am assuming the safety boxes are currently being imported from elsewhere. Regards, Abhisheka Jhunjhunwala...

Dear Colleagues, Below please find information on newly devised incineratorfor healthcare waste and immunization waste developed by healthcare wasteexpert in Tanzania. The incinerator has the following features coupled together: 1) High tech chamber with burner(s), operated at 900C 2) Gas cooler, used to generate hot water for patients andhospital use (sanitation in theaters, use in laundry, and sluice room) 3) Flue Gas cleaning facility developed for incineratorsand other fuel and ...

Hello, With the advent of the new Pneumococcal and Rotavirus vaccines packaged in single dose pre-filled glass syringes, we are likely to be facing a complication in waste management. It's my understanding that this is likely to be a transitory trend for many of the new vaccines in the future, which means that infrastructure (programmatic and technological) needs to be thought up and disseminated as part of national and program health care waste management plans. If you have been administering...

POST 01421E: SYRINGE MELTERS FOLLOW-UP ON POSTS 01406E & 01411E 24 APRIL 2009 ****************************************** Joanie Robertson responds to Hans Everts’s questions regarding how many syringes of a given type can be melted and whether the melter is easily transportable. --------- The syringe melters have 2 containers, each can hold about 250 syringes of the typical immunization AD type, so the total number of syringes processed per cycle is about 500. ...

POST 01411E: SYRINGE MELTER FOLLOW-UP ON POST 01406E 2 APRIL 2009 ****************************************** In addition to mentioning that the capacity is sufficient and that the melter can deal with 1-3 liters of syringes, it would be useful to know how many syringes of a given type can be melted. It will not be rocket science, but give an indicatio...

POST 01406E: EVALUATION OF SYRINGE MELTER 22 MARCH 2009 ****************************************** Dear TechNet moderator, I am forwarding a report of an evaluation of a syringe melter conducted in Andhra Pradesh in 2008. The melter was developed by Mike Werner, then of New Paradigm Automation, under funding from the United States Center for Disease Control (CDC). Dr. Satish Kaipilyawar and his staff in the PATH office in Andhra Pradesh managed the India-based field study with fun...

POST 01307E: HEALTHCARE WASTE MANAGEMENT: NEED FOR TRAINING/SUPERVISION FOLLOW-UP ON POSTS 01295E, 01296E &

POST 01305E: HEALTHCARE WASTE MANAGEMENT: WEIGHTED DECISION-MAKING APPROACH FOLLOW-UP ON POSTS 01295E & 01296E 15 AUGUST 2008 ******************************************* Dear Moderator, I would like to respond to the imp...

POST 01302E: SYRINGE MELTING DEVICES FOLLOW-UP ON POST 01285E 10 AUGUST 2008 ******************************************* Dear Moderator, In response to Anthony Battersby's syringe melting posting of 30 June 2008, PATH would like to offer the following thoughts on the subject: PATH has conducted three field evaluations of several different designs o...

POST 01296E: BETTER TO HAVE SOME WASTE DISPOSAL SYSTEM THAN NONE AT ALL FOLLOW-UP ON POST 01295E 30 JULY 2008 ******************************************* Vijay- Thank you for making this excellent point that we need a feasibility baseline before adopting a medical waste disposal "system". I prefer the word "system" to "technolo...

POST 01286E: WASTE MANAGEMENT CHALLENGES/SOLAR TECHNOLOGY FOLLOW-UP ON POSTS 01273E, 01283E, 01284E...

POST 01285E: REDUCING ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF IMMUNIZATION SERVICES FOLLOW-UP ON POSTS 01273E, 01283E,

POST 01284E: CLIMATE CHANGE/PLASTIC AND PACKAGING FOLLOW-UP ON POST 01283E 26 JUNE 2008 ******************************************* Rosamund Lewis, Member of the HPV Global Community of Practice Steering Committee, shares with us the web address of a site that suggests practical ways in which we can address clima...

POST 01222E: SMALL-SCALE INCINERATORS FOR SAFETY BOXES 5FEBRUARY 2008 Follow-up on post: POST 01220E ************************************************************ In response to the question you raised about a small-scale incinerator that can burn safety boxes, I wish to direct you to contact Dr Musaazi of Makerere University, Kampala who has developed a small-scale incinerator that requires no fuel to start it. For details you can reach him by email or get him on phone: 256 0772 40876...

POST 01220E: WANTED-SMALL-SCALE INCINERATORS FOR SAFETY BOXES 31 JANUARY 2008 _____________________________________________________________ Toryalai Hart writes in with a query for SSIs that can handle healthcare waste which comprises large quantities of plastic. **************************************************************** Hello Techneters - I'm in the process of compiling a database of small-scale incinerators and am in particular lacking options for systems capable of ...

POST 01180E : WASTE MANAGEMENT 2 November 2007 ______________________________ Two documents are now available on-line on the WHO Healthcare Waste Management website. "WHO core principles for achieving safe and sustainable management of health care waste". And the final version of the "International health care waste management meeting report", which took place at WHO Geneva in June 20-22, 2007. (1.2 MB) Best greetings, Yves Yves CHARTIER Public...

POST 01121E : WASTE MANAGEMENT Follow-up on Post 01111E 13 July 2007 _____________________________________ Modibo Dicko's message generated three contributions. The first is from [log in to unmask]">Henrique Menezes d'Alva, from Angola. [log in to unmask]">John Lloyd, from PATH/France, then asks judicious questions and replies are expected from authors. Finally, [log in to unmask]">Bibata Paré from Burkina Faso shares her opinion, giving Haïti as an example....

POST 01111E : WASTE MANAGEMENT 23 June 2007 _____________________________________ [log in to unmask]">Modibo [log in to unmask]"> Dicko, from WHO/AFRO, shares two interesting documents on waste management with his analysis and conclusions. Hyperlinks below will give access to respective documents. It's a pity that they will be accessible only to those who can read French as they have not been translated. The second is an excellent reminder as it was circulated on TechNet in...

POST 01077E : WASTE MANAGEMENT REPORT 12 April 2007 ____________________________________ Carib Nelson (mailto:cnelson@path.org) from PATH is sending the following report. ____________________________________ At the following link is a report on a successful non-incineration system for management of injection waste at the service delivery level that has been established in Andhra Pradesh State in India.