28 March 2004	Sunday	06 Safar 1425

PESHAWAR, March 27: Ineffective hospital waste disposal mechanism, including non-utilization of incinerators at the city's three teaching hospitals , poses serious health hazard for the people in general and doctors and health workers in particular.

The government, had installed incinerators at Lady Reading Hospital, Khyber Teaching Hospital and Hayatabad Medical Complex two years ago to burn the hospital waste, including used syringes, folley's catheters, urine bags, stomach tubes and other disposable surgical items to save the people from being infected with hepatitis and HIV/AIDS.

"These incinerators, costing Rs3.2million each, have been not operational for the past several months ... These machines operate intermittently while remaining inoperative for most of the time," said a doctor at one of the city's hospital.

He said that these machines' disuse was not because they were out of order but they were not being used because of the hospital authorities' apathy, adding they showed no interest in utilizing them.

"Disposable syringes and other items are the main cause of spread of hepatitis and HIV/AIDS, but authorities are least bothered about their risk to human health," said a pharmacist.

He said that disposable syringes were being thrown away carelessly into dust bins, from where they were routinely collected by the sanitary staff who sold these items to scrap- dealers instead of burning them in incinerators.

"We get Rs15 per kg for this scrap and every one of us sell between four and six kilogrammes on a daily basis," said a sweeper.

A general surgeon told this correspondent that they had been operating upon five hepatitis patients in one operation theatre. The syringes and other accessories used in operation are taken away by the sweepers, he said.

Not only the general public, but many senior professors had died of hepatitis C in recent past, whereas some were being treated for the disease.

"At least two dozen nurses and paramedic staff have contracted hepatitis at the three teaching hospitals. But the worst victims are the sweepers, who collect the syringes without taking any precautionary measures," said a source at a city hospital.

He said that about 35 sweepers had been tested positive either for various strains of hepatitis virus in one of these hospitals. A laboratory technician, said that he was being treated for hepatitis C at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences in Islamabad, which he contracted from a needle prick, while analysing a blood sample.

Many medical officers, house jobbers, paramedics and nurses, said that they afraid of being tested for hepatitis.

An official at the secretariat, said that the hospital authorities had reported these incinerators to be in good working condition.

He admitted that the incinerators were not being used deliberately, because the authorities drew the share from the dirty business.