Biomedical waste during the covid-19 pandemic in Indonesia: Systematic literature review

¹ Department of Clinical Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Diponegoro, Semarang, Central Java, 50275, Indonesia
² Departement of Library, Vocational School, Universitas Sebelas Maret, Surakarta, Central Java, 57126, Indonesia

^* Corresponding author: edwardksl@fk.undip.ac.id

Abstract

Since the beginning of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, there has been a significant increase in the quantity of hazardous biomedical waste, which poses a risk to human health and has a negative impact on the environment. There have been no specific studies conducted in Indonesia to assess the potential impact of biomedical waste during the pandemic COVID-19. Therefore, the purpose of this systematic review is to describe the various types of biomedical waste, their implications for health and the environment, as well as the techniques for managing biomedical waste during this pandemic. A total of 141 scientific articles were identified through the Google Scholar database. From these, 17 selected references were systematically analysed. The majority of the studies focused on investigating the environmental impacts of medical waste caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. From the 17 articles, we identified 7 articles that discussed the environmental hazards of biomedical waste, and 4 articles related to health. 6 articles outlined biomedical waste management (BWM) in Indonesia and solutions to implementation issues in BWM. It is recommended to conduct more studies, including meta-analyses, to gain a better understanding of the effects of medical waste on environmental health during the COVID-19 pandemic.