US hospitals unprepared to handle Ebola waste

U.S. hospitals have not come up with a procedure to safely dispose of infected waste from Ebola patients coming from West Africa for treatment, biosafety experts said Wednesday.
Federal guidelines require Ebola-infected waste to be handled by people with hazardous materials training, which is why waste management companies refuse to dispose of Ebola waste, biosafety experts told Reuters.
Many hospitals are not aware of this federal requirement and that could endanger how they treat patients infected with the disease, and could potentially lead to the spread of the virus.
Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, was the first hospital in the United States to treat patients infected with the disease from West Africa. The Ebola patients’ symptoms included excessive vomiting and diarrhea, which required nurses and doctors to wear full hazmat suits. The amount of waste piled up and the hospital’s waste management company, Stericycle, refused to dispose of the waste.
“At its peak, we were up to 40 bags a day of medical waste, which took a huge tax on our waste management system,â€‌ Dr. Aneesh Mehta said at an Emory medical meeting.
The hospital bought waste containers from Home Depot and kept the waste in a special containment area for six days until the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) brokered an agreement with Stericycle.
The worst outbreak in West Africa has affected 20,000 people and U.S. officials said the numbers could rise up to 550,000 by January if the virus is not contained.