Using Ebola as a Lens to Examine Medical Waste Sterilization

The Ebola outbreak in the Fall of 2014 exposed issues surrounding the medical waste disposal of Category A substances. Current regulations by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Transportation on the disposal of Category A medical waste state that the waste must be sterilized before disposal. Approved methods of sterilization are autoclaving and incineration. For hospitals that do not have on-site autoclaves large enough to sterilize the immense amount of waste, they must contract with companies to transport the waste to an off-site sterilization center. Hospitals are required to follow the UN system of triple-packaging medical waste for transportation. Hospitals in the United States that treated Ebola patients during the outbreak faced the issue of having to transport an immense amount of waste to off-site facilities. A focus on medical waste sterilization has led to the development of new technologies that can allow hospitals to sterilize their increased amount of medical waste on-site. These new technologies have the potential to better prepare hospitals for Category A infection outbreaks, and help limit the risk of both in-hospital exposure and out-of-hospital exposures that can occur during waste transportation.