Management of bio-medical waste: awareness and practices in a district of Gujarat

With the objective of assessing the level of awareness about the various aspects of biomedical waste and disposal practices by the medical practitioners this study was conducted. It was a cross sectional study. 30 hospitals with more than 30 beds minimum were randomly selected from Sabarkantha district, Gujarat. The doctors and auxiliary staff of those 30 hospitals were the study population. While all the doctors knew about the existence of the law related to biomedical waste but details were not known. Doctors were aware of risk of HIV and Hepatitis B and C, whereas auxiliary staff (ward boys, ayabens, sweepers) had very poor knowledge about it. There was no effective waste segregation, collection, transportation and disposal system at any hospital in the district. There is an immediate and urgent need to train and educate all doctors and the staff to adopt an effective waste management practices.