Infectious or Biomedical Waste - Essay Example

The paper "Infectious or Biomedical Waste" is an excellent example of an essay on health sciences and medicine. Infectious waste can also be termed as biomedical waste, which is unattended solid waste, with the power of causing transmittable diseases if uncovered pathogenic organisms of consistent virus and dosage through an open passage in the targeted host.
For instance, cultures and stock of infectious agents are considered to be infectious waste with a specific hazard. This is because pathogenic organisms are at hand in great concentration in these materials. Examples of agents in this category include “specimen from medical and pathological laboratories, agents from pharmaceutical preparations and dissipates from the release of biological and antibiotics” (Blackman, 2001).
In “Blood and blood products” the main health hazards include “hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and HIV” (Blackman, 2001). “Malaria, yellow fever, Colorado tick fever” are considered to be minor agents present in blood products. Blood samples used in diverse tests should be handled more carefully, because they are also considered to be harmful, and can cause infectious diseases. Thus all blood and blood products considered to be waste should be treated as infectious even though test results may term them to be negative (Blackman, 2001).
Pathological wastes include “tissue, organs, body parts, blood and body fluids” that are released during surgery and autopsy (Blackman, 2001). Pathological wastes from patients having the infectious waste disease should be handled as harmful because of the chance that these wastes may contain harmful pathogens. Additionally, it is also important to handle pathological wastes as harmful, because they may contain unknown infection present in the patient or corpse being handled. Therefore, all pathological waste should be handled in the same manner regardless of the level of harm present.
Proper measures should, therefore, be undertaken when handling infectious waste. An adequate and reliable program should be developed to ensure medical staff, and patients are protected from any form of harm generated by infectious waste. For instance, all liquids' infectious waste should be removed in sealed containers. Additionally, compaction infectious waste should be avoided. Prior to the transportation of any infectious waste, proper sterilization should be done. Proper guidelines should also be developed to ensure integrity is maintained (Blackman, 2001).