Articles: personal-protective-equipment.
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Since the first case of COVID-19 and its progression to a pandemic, healthcare systems the world over have experienced severe difficulties coping with patient care for both COVID-19 and other diseases most especially non communicable diseases like cancer. These difficulties in Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), especially in Sub-Saharan Africa including Nigeria, are myriad. ⋯ The discussion highlighted ethical issues, barriers to continuing cancer care (such as lockdown, fear of contracting disease, downscaled health services) and resource constraints such unavailable personal protective equipment. Yet, practical solutions were proffered such as necessary protective measures, case by case prioritization or de-prioritization, telemedicine and other achievable means in the Nigerian setting.
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Front Public Health · Jan 2020
Face Masks During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Simple Protection Tool With Many Meanings.
Wearing face masks is recommended as part of personal protective equipment and as a public health measure to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Their use, however, is deeply connected to social and cultural practices and has acquired a variety of personal and social meanings. This article aims to identify the diversity of sociocultural, ethical, and political meanings attributed to face masks, how they might impact public health policies, and how they should be considered in health communication. ⋯ Our study points to the importance for an in-depth understanding of the cultural and sociopolitical considerations around the personal and social meaning of mask wearing in different contexts as a necessary prerequisite for the assessment of the effectiveness of face masks as a public health measure. Improving the personal and collective understanding of citizens' behaviors and attitudes appears essential for designing more effective health communications about COVID-19 pandemic or other global crises in the future. To wear a face mask or not to wear a face mask? Nowadays, this question has been analogous to the famous line from Shakespeare's Hamlet: "To be or not to be, that is the question." This is a bit allegorical, but certainly not far from the current circumstances where a deadly virus is spreading amongst us... Vanja Kopilaš, Croatia.
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Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is required to safely work with biological agents of bacterial (i.e. Mycobacterium tuberculosis) or viral origin (Ebola and SARS). COVID-19 pandemic especially has created unforeseen public health challenges including a global shortage of PPE needed for the safety of health care workers (HCWs). Although sufficient stocks of PPE are currently available, their critical shortage may develop soon due to increase in demand and depletion of existing supply lines. To empower our HCWs and ensure their continued protection, proactive measures are urgently required to develop procedures to safely decontaminate the PPEs to allow their "selective reuse" during contingency situations. ⋯ Our study, therefore, successfully establishes the utility of VHP to effectively disinfect PPE for a possible reuse as per the requirements. VHP treatment did not damage coveralls, cause physical deformity and also did not alter fabric architecture of melt blown layer. We observed that disinfection process was successful consistently and therefore believe that the VHP-based decontamination model will have a universal applicability and utility. This process can be easily and economically scaled up and can be instrumental in easing global PPE shortages in any biosafety facility or in health care settings during pandemic situation such as COVID-19.
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J Prim Care Community Health · Jan 2020
Prevalence of Coronavirus Antibody Among First Responders in Lubbock, Texas.
The ongoing coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has a major impact on first responders. Scarce personal protective equipment (PPE) has forced them to conserve and reuse some of their PPE. The efficacy of these practices in preventing transmission of COVID-19 from patients to first responders is unclear. There are limited data on the prevalence of antibodies specific for COVID-19 exposure in these front-line workers. ⋯ The prevalence of IgG specific antibodies to COVID-19 was much lower than expected in our study population despite high sensitivity and specificity of the test reagent. The most likely explanations for this finding include limited exposure, inadequate time for a IgG response, possible clearance of COVID-19 infection locally by the respiratory tract IgA defense system without eliciting a systemic IgG response, and short persistence of IgG antibodies in mild or asymptomatic cases.