Does medical waste research during COVID-19 meet the challenge induced by the pandemic to waste management?

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an unprecedented amount of medical waste, presenting significant challenges for the safe disposal of hazardous waste. A systematic review of existing research on COVID-19 and medical waste can help address these challenges by providing insights and recommendations for effective management of the massive medical waste generated during the pandemic. This study utilized bibliometric and text mining methods to survey the scientific outcomes related to COVID-19 and medical waste, drawing on data from the Scopus database. The results show that the spatial distribution of medical waste research is unbalanced. Surprisingly, developing countries rather than developed countries lead research in this area. Especially, China, a major contributor to the field, has the highest number of publications and citations, and is also a centre of international cooperation. The main study authors and research institutions are also mainly from China. And the research on medical waste is a multidisciplinary field. Text mining analysis shows that COVID-19 and medical waste research is mainly organized around four themes: (i) medical waste from personal protective equipment; (ii) research on medical waste in Wuhan, China; (iii) threats of medical waste to the environment and (iv) disposal and management of medical waste. This would serve to better understand the current state of medical waste research and to provide some implications for future research.

Análisis bibliométrico sobre Residuos Peligrosos Biológico Infecciosos y Residuos Médicos en el periodo del 2000 al 2021

“…Dos son muy similares, en uno de ellos se realiza un análisis bibliométrico de los estudios publicados durante el COVID-19 para describir la gestión de los residuos médicos utilizando Scopus, este se enfoca en Indonesia (Mangindaan et al, 2022). En el otro, se estudia COVID-19 y residuos médicos mediante bibliometría utilizando Scopus, con la finalidad de visualizar si la investigación existente es capaz de abordar los importantes retos que plantea una situación como la pandemia misma (Wang et al, 2023).…”

The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Hospital Waste Management: A Bibliometric Analysis

“…The COVID-19 pandemic led to a double increase in waste, as well as a reduced capacity of healthcare workers to manage waste due to increased patient loads, COVID-19 work, and societal constraints (2). In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a significant rise in medical waste worldwide (3). Not only does this waste contribute to environmental problems caused by solid waste, but also it creates a potential health hazard for those who handle it (4).…”