| dc.description.abstract | Bangladesh has been grappling with the issues of improper hospital waste management.
To reflect the inadequacies in existing management practices and the potential implications on the
environment and health, this study evaluated the Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice (KAP) of doctors
and nurses in a private and a public hospital in Chattogram city via a structured questionnaire survey.
At the public hospital, 20.4% of the doctors and 6% of the nurses had occupational illnesses, compared
to 36% of the doctors and 26.5% of the nurses at the private hospital. At the public hospital, 67.8% of
the nurses wore PPE during waste collection, compared to 17.7% in the private hospital. Hospital
wastes and occupational safety are not properly dealt with in both hospitals. An inadequacy was
observed in the knowledge of hospital waste management among healthcare workers. The route of
hospital wastes from the sources to the end destination was also traced via interviews and focus group
discussions, which revealed that disposal practices of the hospital solid waste were environmentally
unsustainable. In attempts to show opportunities for environmental and health risks from the hospital
wastewater, this study also investigated the quality of the wastewater and tested it for the presence
of resistant enteric pathogens. E. coli and S. aureus from both hospitals showed resistance against
some common antibiotics used in Bangladesh. The physicochemical properties of the samples were
nearly compliant with the Bangladesh Water Quality Standards for hospital wastewater. While more
robust sampling and water quality analysis are required, this study provides basic water quality
indicators and scope for future research to understand the apparent significant negative impact on
the environment and health. | en_US |
