Maghreban experts devise medical waste processing guide

A team of north African experts are drawing a guide for the processing of medical waste and a strategy to control contagious diseases in the five Maghreb countries (Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia).

At a meeting at the Rabat-based secretariat general of the Arab Maghreb Union (UMA), the experts stressed the need to exchange information on the apparition of epidemics in the five countries' regions and borders.

They called Pasteur institutes and similar laboratories to meet in Tunisia next September to finetune a joint Maghreban strategy and probe the creation of an epidemiological surveillance observatory.

The guide for the processing of waste produced by hospitals will be further examined during an international workshop slated for next July in Libya.

In Morocco, the volume of hospital waste is estimated at 38,000 tons annually, including 12,000 tons considered as hazardous.