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Vulnerability of Health care Waste Cleaners to Occupational Injuries and Communicable Diseases in West Arsi Zone, Oromia regional state, Ethiopia
Abstract
Abstract
Health care facility cleaners and waste handlers are more vulnerable due to reasons associated to lower educational status, lack of relevant vaccinations and proper personal protective equipments, and most medical wastes commonly being handled and transported by hand. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the prevalence and level of vulnerability of medical waste cleaners in West Arsi zone, Oromia regional state, to various occupational injuries and communicable diseases.
An institutional based cross sectional study was undertaken in which quantitative data were collected from medical waste cleaners working in both public and private healthcare facilities using structured questionnaire. Data were collected from 102 samples by well trained enumerators and entered in to SPSS version 20 to be analyzed in relation to the objective of the research at hand. Descriptive statistical tools were used to present data and interpreted according to the frequency distribution of cases identified therein. The target of the analysis was geared towards discovering whether occupational injury and related susceptibility prevails or not, as well as to what extent it does.
Findings revealed that medical waste cleaners in the study area are highly vulnerable to occupational injuries and communicable diseases. Blood contaminations, needle prick in the hand, cut by sharp materials and contact with other body fluids have been found to be risky incidents faced by the health care waste cleaners. The main source of susceptibility has also been found to be the failure of the survey population to use various types of occupational safety materials such as safety shoes, protective eye wear, and before and on-job safety trainings.
The exposure of medical waste cleaners to face risky incidents and infectious contaminations is because of institutional factors that are beyond their control; it is the failure of the management of the health care facilities to train their respective waste cleaners about safety measures and provide all the necessary equipments that led them to encounter the problems.
Key words:- Medical waste, Cleaners, Injuries, Vulnerability, West Arsi
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.52155/ijpsat.v14.1.787
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