Waste Disposal Unit (WDU): A WHO-Compliant Total Healthcare Waste Management Solution

Mismanagement of healthcare waste puts healthcare workers, patients and the community at risk from pathogens and from pollution due to burning in open pits or badly maintained incineration equipment.

Primary health facilities require health care waste management systems to minimize the risk of contamination of patients, health workers and the general public from infectious waste. In this regard, Waste Disposal Unit (WDU) with Small Scale Incinerator (SSI), when used according to Best Practices, can be a cheap and comparatively less hazardous way of disposing of health care waste. This system was designed with funding and guidance from PATH and WHO.

Management Information System (MIS) for Vaccine, Commodities and Cold Chain equipment

Development of MIS for monitoring equipment status and vaccine storage capacity within the Cold Chain is an important field of work for CREATE. Information provided by the MIS includes equipment status, vaccine inventory, waste stream and consumables.

Critical information pertaining to the MIS is auto generated and is available to concerned authorities. The software is equipped to manage data related to vaccine storage and distribution from the Central Store (CS), the Regional Stores (RS), and the District Head Quarters (DHQ).

The system can monitor vaccine and consumables stocks, create an inventory of cold chain equipment and spares, maintain logs of all the shipments, keep account of receipts and status, as well as undertake wastage calculations.

The Centre for Renewable Energy, Appropriate Technology and Environment (CREATE) proudly introduces a well researched and field proven line of products in the specific areas Healthcare Waste Management, Cold Chain Information Management and Vaccine Refrigeration.

The SolarChill Vaccine Refrigerator

The SolarChill is a small vaccine refrigerator that operates directly from solar photovoltaic panels without batteries or a charge controller. When the sun is shining, DC power generated by the solar panels operates the variable voltage DC compressor which freezes ice-packs used in an ice bank.

The ice bank stores energy which is used to maintain vaccine compartment temperatures at WHO recommended level during periods when the sun is not shining. The vaccine compartment temperature is self-regulated by thermal design, and does not rely on electronic control devices. The SolarChill has a special built-in feature which prevents freezing of vaccines.

Solar Syringe Melting Oven

Tests indicate that in high insolation countries it is cost-effective to thermally treat used syringes using a solar concentrator system. The solar-powered syringe-melting oven developed has the potential to provide safe and low-cost thermal processing in accordance with Technet recommendations and WHO specifications.