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Biomedical waste is a complete waste that is generated during the healthcare delivery process within the healthcare facilities (HCFs). There are two main types of healthcare waste; Hazardous waste (Sharps, cytotoxic, radioactive, infectious, pathological, chemical, and pharmaceutical waste) and non-hazardous waste (general waste or waste that does not pose any biological, chemical, radioactive, or physical hazard). Objective: Assessment of awareness, attitude and practices regarding Medical waste management among Healthcare professionals. Material and Methods: An institution-based cross-sectional study was deployed on 264 medical staff of Bolan Medical Complex (BMC) hospital, Quetta for assessment of Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice about medical waste management. The data was collected by a structured questionnaire of 23-item scale divided into four sections was used to collect the data which was adopted from an established medical waste management (MWM) tool. Data was entered into SPSS and scores of all variables were calculated the cutoff point was settled for the differentiation of every output variable. The ethical approval from an internal review board of Institute and permission from hospital was obtained to conduct the study. Written informed consent was taken from the every participant of the study the data was analyzed by SPSS version 20. Results: Demographics of the study shows that 137 out of 264 were females which 51.9% of the sample collected and 48.1% were male participants. Mean age of the study participants was 35.86±7.03 years, 51.5% of total participants were doctors, 33.3% nurses and the paramedical staff was 15.5%. The data was collected from all departments but the major portion of the data was from medicine (35.5%) and surgery department (25.5%). Final results shows that 174(66%) having high awareness 91(34.4%) were doctors and attitude results where 60.2%(159) were positive while 39.8%(105) were negative. The overall practices results are also given, where "Good" response was 77.3%(204) while overall response to statement of environmental enabling factors were 37.9% "Yes" only. Conclusion: This study concludes that medical waste management has not received adequate reflection in governmental hospitals, since there is inadequate and inefficient segregation, collection, transportation and storage of bio-medical waste. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Smoking is a public health concern of high importance. Globally, the prevalence of smoking has decreased gradually over a period from 1990-2015. However, the total numbers of smokers has increased over the same period. Currently, there are 1.1 billion smokers in the world which risk to an increase in smoking related health issues in turn contributes to increased burden of non-communicable diseases Objective: To assist the willingness to smoke cessation among medical students and its associated factors. Material and Methods: It is a cross-sectional study comprised of a self-administered Hamilton Tobacco use questionnaire administered witheligible university students. Data was collected from 266-participants after taking verbal informed consent. Data analysis was done using SPSS version 20. Results: A total of out of 266 respondents were taken for the study. In general, willingness to cessation smoke among medical students in Karachi was seen about 64% while high ratio reported among female as compare to males. In MBBS students it is 64.9%, BDS 65.3% and 55.8% among BS. Conclusion: The high ratio of smoke cessation in female students is an indicator towards need of massive behavioral change campaign in order to encourage medical students to quit cigarette smoking and other tobacco related substances. It can be possible by provision of some educational projects regarding the health hazards of smoking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biomedical waste is a complete waste that is generated during the healthcare delivery process within the healthcare facilities (HCFs). There are two main types of healthcare waste; Hazardous waste (Sharps, cytotoxic, radioactive, infectious, pathological, chemical, and pharmaceutical waste) and non-hazardous waste (general waste or waste that does not pose any biological, chemical, radioactive, or physical hazard). Objective: Assessment of awareness, att itude and practices regarding Medical waste management among Healthcare professionals. Material and Methods: An institution-based cross-sectional study was deployed on 264 medical staff of Bolan Medical Complex (BMC) hospital, Quett a for assessment of Knowledge, Att itude, and Practice about medical waste management. The data was collected by a structured questionnaire of 23-item scale divided into four sections was used to collect the data which was adopted from an established medical waste management (MWM) tool. Data was entered into SPSS and scores of all variables were calculated the cutoff point was sett led for the differentiation of every output variable. The ethical approval from an internal review board of Institute and permission from hospital was obtained to conduct the study. Written informed consent was taken from the every participant of the study the data was analyzed by SPSS version 20. Results: Demographics of the study shows that 137 out of 264 were females which 51.9% of the sample collected and 48.1% were male participants. Mean age of the study participants was 35.86±7.03 years, 51.5% of total participants were doctors, 33.3% nurses and the paramedical staff was 15.5%. The data was collected from all departments but the major portion of the data was from medicine (35.5%) and surgery department (25.5%). Final results shows that 174(66%) having high awareness 91(34.4%) were doctors and att itude results where 60.2%(159) were positive while 39.8%(105) were negative. The overall practices results are also given, where "Good" response was 77.3%(204) while overall response to statement of environmental enabling factors were 37.9% "Yes" only. Conclusion: This study concludes that medical waste management has not received adequate reflection in governmental hospitals, since there is inadequate and inefficient segregation, collection, transportation and storage of bio-medical waste. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]