SIERRA LEONE / AUTOCLAVES

With support from the United Nations Development Programme and the Global Environment Facility, Sierra Leone has begun to use new, environmentally-friendly sterilizing equipment to help dispose of the vast amounts of contaminated protective equipment and infectious waste generated in treating Ebola patients. UNDP

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:03:02
• Production Date: 23 December 2014
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME - UNDP; UNITED NATIONS MISSION IN LIBERIA - UNMIL
• Subject Topical: EBOLA
• Geographic Subject: GUINEA; LIBERIA; SIERRA LEONE
• MAMS Id: 1272459

Description

STORY: SIERRA LEONE / AUTOCLAVES
TRT: 3:02
SOURCE: UNDP
RESTRICTIONS: None
LANGUAGE: English/Nats

DATELINE: 19 December 2014 Military Base 34, Sierra Leone

Shotlist

1. Various of autoclave parts arriving by air,
2. Various of autoclave installation and testing,
3. SOUNDBITE (English), Private Kanbeh Kargbo, Public Health Officer:
“We’ve been having trouble with waste, especially infectious waste that we have here. Because all of the waste that we have generated here is infectious waste. And it’s very difficult for us to handle it. But now that we have got this autoclave, it will be very much easier for us.”
4. Health workers disinfected their scrubs,
5. Zena Ali Ahmad, UNDP Country Director talking with the ladies in the sewing training programme, Jerash.
6. SOUNDBITE (English), Jorge Emmanuel, UNDP Healthcare Waste Expert:
“This will not only be a contribution, we feel, to the Ebola crisis but even after the Ebola crisis, this will be an opportunity to reduce hopefully even eliminate the transmission of things like AIDS, hepatitis and other types of diseases that can be transmitted because of infectious waste that’s improperly treated.”
7. Various of healthcare waste being burned,
8. Various of autoclave being tested.

STORY:

With support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF), Sierra Leone has begun to use new, environmentally-friendly sterilizing equipment to help dispose of the vast amounts of contaminated protective equipment and infectious waste generated in treating Ebola patients.

The sterilizing machine, known as an autoclave, decontaminates used medical equipment and waste such as syringes, personal protective suits and gloves through several cycles of high-pressure steam and vacuuming, allowing for their safe disposal.

It is the first of its kind in any of the Ebola-affected countries and is now functioning at the Ebola Treatment Units (ETU) at Police Training School Treatment Centre Two in Hastings and No. 34 Military Hospital in Freetown.

Autoclaves present an alternative to burning waste in open pits, barrels, or inexpensive incinerators without air pollution control equipment, which produce dangerous fumes and expose workers to flames.

With autoclaves, medical waste is processed in safe barrels designed to minimize contact and comes out as a dry and sterile plastic mass less than half the initial volume. The equipment requires electricity and water for the internal steam generator, and a small drain for releasing sterilized liquids and steam.

The autoclave was designed under a UNDP/GEF project and is manufactured by a South African company, Mediclave to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, hepatitis B and C, tuberculosis and other diseases that can be transmitted through infectious waste.

UNDP is working to roll out the technology to 11 treatment centers across Sierra Leone and plans to send some units to Guinea and Liberia, the other two most-affected countries. The initiative, worth USD 4 million, is partially cost-shared by the Government of South Korea.