N95 masks may not protect workers on the Covid-19 frontlines

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N95 masks may not protect workers on the Covid-19 frontlines

N95 masks may not protect workers on the Covid-19 frontlines

a key strategy for protecting health care workers on the frontlines of fighting the highly transmissible novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, is the use of personal protective equipment, including the type of face mask known as an N95 respirator or N95 mask. When used properly, these masks filter out at least 95% of airborne particles. But used without training, the masks could not only expose workers to the virus but also lull them into thinking they are protected.To get more news about famous medical mask factory outlet, you can visit tnkme.com official website.

Firefighters aren’t given a mask and helmet and sent into burning buildings without first being trained how to use the equipment to protect themselves. We should be doing the same thing for health care workers, but that doesn’t seem to be standard operating procedure.

You can see this for yourself with a quick scan of videos or photos in media outlets showing first responders and hospital workers. Many aren’t wearing their personal protective equipment correctly. For example, N95 respirators work only if there is a tight seal around the face, something that is not possible in someone with a full beard. For people with facial hair, the appropriate protection is a positive pressure, full-face powered air-purifying respirator.
Health care workers are at high risk of contracting Covid-19 for several reasons: exposure to many patients with Covid-19 who are shedding the virus, lengthy exposure during extended shifts, and increased frequency of exposure because of repeated shifts caring for Covid-19 patients. This is compounded by a lack of capacity to treat all Covid-19 patients what are known as airborne infection isolation rooms. These are single patient rooms designed to contain airborne pathogens using ventilation control techniques.

The overall result is that health care workers are relying on personal protective equipment as a strategy to prevent becoming infected with SARS-CoV-2. Much of the national attention has been focused on the shortage of respirators, like N95 masks (the 95 refers to the fact that these masks filter out 95% of the tiny particulate matter in the air), and this remains an area of deep concern. But the inappropriate use of N95 masks is also putting health care workers — and patients — at risk.

Lost in the discussion about personal protective equipment is that it should be used as a last line of defense. The National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety (NIOSH) uses what’s known as the hierarchy of controls to rank the effectiveness of and preference for intervention strategies.

The first goal is to eliminate a hazard or substitute it out, neither of which are possible for health care workers treating patients with Covid-19.

Next come engineering controls, such as airborne infection isolation rooms, which constantly replace the air in the room with 100% outdoor or filter it for particulate matter like dust, viruses, and bacteria. CDC guidance recommends the use isolation rooms for patients using CPAP or BiPAP machines, which can push viral particles into the air, though many hospitals are converting other areas of hospitals into negative pressure spaces.

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