Abstract

Annually, levels of home care are increasing, and it is a suitable alternative to hospitalization for many patients. Performing health care at home leads to the production of household infectious waste. These wastes are disposed without decontamination along with normal household waste. In the current policy brief, we aimed to provide strategies and policy options to improve the management of household infectious wastes in Iran. This study was conducted in 2023. We adopted an action plan approach to develop and implement specific strategies and policy options to improve management of household infectious waste in the Iranian context. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 participants, including health policymakers, faculty members, municipality practitioners, and environmental experts. Purposive and snowball sampling strategies were adopted to recruit participants. The potential policy options identified for the management of household infectious wastes in Iran through participants' perspectives and experiences were: education and culture: educational program and social awareness, promotion of research and educational activities; management measures: formulation and implementation of an effective policy of household infectious waste management, fundamental change in household infectious waste management, efficient planning, development of implementation instructions, decentralization policy; economic support: budget allocation and resource provision, providing infrastructure; legal social protection: legislation, social responsibility of people and citizens, adopting a punitive policy; technology: creativity and innovation in creating automated technology, production of reliable statistics and information; control and evaluation: process monitoring and auditing; waste generation: decrease in waste generation, household infectious waste estimation per capita, sustainable technology; classification and collection: reinforcement of the classification, source separation, ensuring the safety of workers, development and implementation of safe waste collection; temporary storage: storage in a temporary place; transportation: transfer registration and tracking, safe transfer; processing (waste treatment): thermal process, non-thermal processes, follow the policies of affiliated health centers, selected process considerations; safe disposal: comprehensive disposal system, centralized disposal facilities. In the current study, we present an experience of a developing country in terms of introducing a policy brief for the management of household infectious waste. Further studies are required to assess the effectiveness of the policy options outlined in this policy brief in practical.