Report on Health-Care Waste Management (HCWM) Status in Countries of the South-East Asia Region

This report – Report on health-care waste management (HCWM) status in Countries of the South-East Asia Region (SEA Region) – presents an assessment of health-care waste management policies and practices in 10 Member States of the WHO South-East Asia Region. Primary data from health-care facilities, secondary data obtained through the ministries of health, and status reports presented by focal points of the ministries of health from 10 Member States that attended a regional workshop on health-care waste management in 2016 were used in preparing this report.

Although compliance on health-care waste management remains a big challenge in many Member States, there are some good practices which have been documented in this report. WHO will continue to work with the ministries of health to raise awareness, develop capacity, and institutionalize management of health-care wastes to protect patients, health workers, hospital staff and the community.