Associated factors of medical waste management practices in developing countries: a review

The heterogeneous composition of waste from healthcare facilities has historically been a significant challenge with management efforts concentrating primarily on treatment and disposal solutions. This has left a legacy of issues with the management of this type of waste, especially for developing nations. This paper has examined the associated factors of medical waste management (MWM) practices in healthcare facilities in developing nations. Medical waste (MW) definitions have been examined, and factors associated with its management, from regulation and policy formulation to disposal, have been identified through desk research of existing studies. This paper found that in some countries where MWM legislation and policies exist, some are either poorly formulated or are an offshoot of general environmental waste management regulations. More specifically for developing countries, this study found that training, segregation, handling and disposal practices and implementation of MWM programmes were often at a poor standard. Poor regulatory frameworks, poor risk awareness and training, poor financing, influence of social factors such as cultural norms, poor infrastructure and technological advancement were some of the factors identified as key issues. This paper viewed the challenges of MWM practices in developing countries to be much more of a management issue than a technological issue and has identified advanced routine management approaches within an integrated sustainable MWM framework as a tool to drive improvements in MWM programmes