A single Ebola patient receiving treatment at a U.S. hospital generates eight 55-gallon barrels of waste per day, evidence of a larger problem facing the nation's hospitals on how to safely dispose of Ebola medical waste, according to a Sunday report from the Los Angeles Times.
Medical waste that piles up while treating Ebola includes everything from masks, hazmat suits and protective shoes worn by the health care workers to cups, towels and pillowcases. Even the patient's mattress must be thrown out.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that burning medical waste at temperatures over 1,000 degrees is a proven way to kill the virus that has claimed the lives of thousands in West Africa and one life in the U.S.
But many states, including California, ban incinerating contaminated waste over a concern of harmful pollutants being released into the air, the LA Times noted.
Other states that do allow incineration are looking to ban it specifically for Ebola waste. That includes states like Missouri, where the attorney general wants Ebola waste banned from an incinerator in St. Louis.
CDC officials also recommend using steam sterilization, or autoclaving, to destroy the deadly virus.
"The Ebola virus itself is not particularly hardy," CDC Director Tom Frieden told Capitol Hill recently. "It's killed by bleach, by autoclaving, by a variety of chemicals."
But the CDC also contends that "chemical inactivation" poses a risk for health care workers, the LA Times reported. Most hospitals also don't use autoclaving and send the waste to medical disposal companies instead, professor Thomas Ksiazek, from the University of Texas Medical Branch's department of microbiology and immunology, told the newspaper.
Then there's the question of whether or not human waste from patients with Ebola- which is transmitted through contact with bodily fluids- should be flushed down the toilet.
"Here's what we've heard from the CDC: It's OK," Dr. David Perrott, chief medical officer of the California Hospital Association, told the newspaper. "But then we've heard from some sources that maybe we need to sterilize it somehow and then flush it down the toilet or you have to check with local authorities. It sounds maybe a little gross, but there is a real question about what to do with that waste."
It seems the only option California and other incineration-banning states have is to transport the medical waste by truck to other states for burning. But health officials face a barrier of federal laws that require a Class A infectious substance like Ebola to be approved for travel by the Department of Transportation.
"These are some pretty big issues and they need some quick attention," Jennifer Bayer, spokeswoman for the Hospital Association of Southern California, told the LA Times.
"We fully expect that it's coming our way," she added. "Not to create any sort of scare, but just given the makeup of our population and the hub that we are, it's very likely."
