Debidas Ghosh, Baladev Das, Raja Ray, Kausik Chatterjee, Aparajita Das and Ashok Kumar Saha
Objective: Bio Medical Waste handlers may be victimized of blood borne viral diseases if clinical laboratories dispose off the biological samples without proper disinfection procedure. To assess the risks of laboratory waste related environmental contamination a cross sectional study was performed with the disposed specimens i.e. laboratory waste study (LW study) during the period of 2007 to 2012 after getting ethical clearance certificate issued by ‘Institutional Ethics Committee’.
Research Methods: LW specimens were collected from randomly selected government and private sector laboratories of ‘Hooghly’ and ‘Burdwan’ districts, West Bengal, India. Five randomly selected untreated blood samples (kept for disposal and recognized as waste) from each laboratory out of 21 selected laboratories (5 from government sector and 16 from private sector laboratories) from ‘Hooghly’ district and 20 laboratories (6 government sector and 14 private sector laboratories) from ‘Burdwan’ district (total specimen number 205) were collected with prior consent of the laboratory authorities. Standard immunological methods were adopted for detection of three viral biomarkers of blood i.e. serum for anti HIV antibody, anti HCV antibody and HBsAg using chromatographic test kits to identify the chances of spreading of ‘Hepatitis B’, ‘Hepatitis C’ and ‘HIV’.
Results: Serological findings of samples revealed that in ‘Hooghly’ district out of total 25 samples collected from the government sector; HBsAg, anti-HCV antibody and anti-HIV antibody were found reactive for 8%, 8% and 4% respectively. For the private sector laboratory wastes, 2.5%, 2.5% and 1.25% samples confirmed positivity for HBsAg, anti-HCV antibody and anti-HIV antibody respectively out of total 80 samples. For ‘Burdwan’ district, in government sector existence for HBsAg was found nil (0%), where as 3.33% positive cases were found for both of the anti-HCV antibody and 3.33% for the anti-HIV antibody out of total 30 laboratory waste samples. Out of total 70 collected samples from private laboratories, 1.43% samples with anti-HCV antibody and 1.43% sample with anti-HIV antibody were found reactive where as the positivity for HBsAg antibody was found nil (0%).
Conclusions: More positive samples were found in ‘Hooghly’ district indicated the greater chances of infection from the laboratory wastes than ‘Burdwan’ district. It may contaminate directly to the population during transportation of the laboratory wastes and surrounding community may get the viral infections through skin abrasion, injury cut etc.
