Performance Comparison among KN95-Certified Face Masks by Classical Techniques and Innovative Test

Personal protective equipment: Analysis of supply among midwives during the COVID-19 pandemic in Peru

After almost a year in the COVID-19 era, nothing has been done to assess facial masks currently available for professionals and for the general public, to improve the efficacy of the masks or to promote their correct use. Yet, it is paramount to produce and use masks able to guarantee the absolute virus isolation or, at least, to limit the effect of the pandemic, and to have masks with lower efficiency but able to reduce the contagion nevertheless. In addition, national and international health institutions failed to deliver rational guidelines able to assess the effectiveness of facial mask in reducing the spreading of the virus and guidance on the correct use of facial masks both for healthcare workers and for the people. Facial masks available in the market in most cases are simply not appropriate because they are intended for other purposes. Some parameters aimed to assess and define facial masks, in fact, as the Bacterial Filtration efficiency (BFE) or the Particle Filtration Efficiency (PFE), are not suitable to define prevention devices for general population during viral pandemics: devices projected according to these factors are aimed to preserve patients during surgery operations or to protect workers from air pollutants. Thus, masks designed for the containment of a pandemic (facial masks intended for public health purposes) and for the prevention of the infection (facial masks intended as personal protective equipment) must have specific characteristics. Failing to deliver such features or the inadequate use of those masks that are already available can result in harm for both individuals and the population. The aim of this chapter, then, is to rationally analyze, according to a scientific approach, the antiviral mask issue.

Provision and use of personal protective equipment among home care and hospice nurses in North Carolina

It is known the fact that in both the Member States of the European Union and the United States, the provision of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to workers who are carrying out their activity in different sectors is done in accordance with existing legislation and regulations specific to each state. However, choosing a suitable PPE for a particular workplace is a difficult task to perform given that there are a variety of PPE on the market that perform, in different ways these functions: to prevent an accident - from the same place of work. to protect the health and safety of workers and to minimize damage from any possible accident. Comparing the alternatives, in order to find the most favourable protective equipment specific to a particular workplace, is a complex multi-criteria decision problem that sometimes is difficult to solve. In this paper we approached a method of multi-criteria analysis of the decision, respectively we applied a Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) to select PPE -favourable to a certain job: mechanical locksmith. Our work allowed us to find the dominant criteria and the critical factors in the products evaluation, multi-criteria evaluation AHP of employees’ requirements, regarding PPE and ergonomic aspects.

Background: The corona virus (covid-19) pandemic in Indonesia is still growing. Every week the number of infections of Covid-19 was 2,273 cases. Where as, 198 of them died and 164 people were treated. In fact, among them are healthy workers who help treat corona virus patients and become infected afterward. There was a shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) for health workers in Southeast Sulawesi province, especially at Kendari City, Health Center Kandai. This makes health workers have to take turns wearing PPE if they want to do their job. Therefore, many health workers feel restless and do not want to carry out their duties if they are not provided with adequate PPE, because they will examine people or patients whose health status is not yet known. The purpose of this study is to analyze the relationship between the providing of self-protective equipment and occupational stress events of health officers in the handling of Covid-19 at Kandai health center. Methods: This type of research is an analytic study with a cross-sectional approach. The sample in this study amounted to 58 people using the total sampling method. Results: The results showed that there was a relationship between the provision of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) with the incidence of work stress for health workers in handling covid-19 at Kandai Health CenterKendari City, with the statistical test results being 18,322. Conclusion: It is hoped that policy makers, especially the head of the Kandai Health Center, pay more attention to the safety and health of their employees, such as in the provision of PPE, and for health workers, especially at Kandai Health Center, to further improve the Covid-19 protocol that is applied to themselves and patients.

Do Slit-Lamp Shields and Face Masks Protect Ophthalmologists amidst COVID-19?

How clinicians manage routinely low supplies of personal protective equipment

Maintaining an adequate supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) is a global challenge for health systems during the COVID-19 pandemic. Estimating PPE demand is critical for planning clinical activities and managing supplies. We used health system modelling to forecast PPE demand in Ontario’s acute care sector during the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, we estimated PPE demand by integrating PPE requirements for patient contacts into an existing health system model that forecasts near-term (up to 60 days) COVID-19 cases and their care trajectory in Ontario’s acute care system. We modeled two PPE strategies to care for confirmed and suspected COVID-19 patients: a base case scenario considering provincial PPE use recommendations, and a hospital-level case study using a PPE policy of universal masking and conservation strategies. Our base case estimate of PPE required to care for confirmed or suspected COVID-19 patients in Ontario’s acute care hospitals over a 60-day period was substantial—over 4.5 million each of surgical masks, face shields, and gowns would be required. Our hospital-level case study demonstrated that reuse of PPE reduces demand and offsets the effects of healthcare worker point of care assessments for N95 masks. Our work shows that health system modelling can estimate demand for PPE across pandemic trajectories and PPE use policies. The PPE volume required to safely care for COVID-19 patients is substantial and different PPE policies have marked effects on demand, which needs to be taken into account in procurement decisions to ensure adequate supply.

PPE during a pandemic: The experience of obtaining PPE and lessons learned from a department of obstetrics and gynecology in New York city

Increased food production requires fertilizers and pesticides. Fertilizers are used to increase soil fertility and pesticides are used to eradicate pests in food crops and plantations. Problems of farmers in Pucak Village, Kec. Tompobulu as a partner does not know the level of exposure to pesticides, does not know the impact of pesticides on health problems and does not have Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) when spraying. The solutions are: (1) Counseling on prevention and the impact of the use of fertilizers and pesticides on the incidence of dermatitis, (2) Provision of PPE in the form of masks and gloves in fertilizing and spraying pesticides. The results of community service are (1) Counseling on prevention and the impact of using fertilizers and pesticides on the incidence of dermatitis, which is carried out by conducting home visits. Farmers experienced an average increase in knowledge of safe and healthy fertilizing and pesticide spraying management, (2) Provision of PPE, especially hats, masks and gloves to farmers. Abstract: Increasing food production requires fertilizer and pesticides. Fertilizer is used to increase soil fertility. Fertilizer has a negative impact in the form of disease and poisoning on farmers in Borisallo Village, Kec. Parangloe, Kab. Gowa as a partner does not yet know how to prevent exposure to organic fertilizers on health, there is no provision of micronutrient supplementation (Calcium, Magnesium, Zinc, Boron and Vitamin D) as an increase in body immunity and detoxification of fertilizer exposure poisoning and there is no availability of Personal Protective Equipment in managing fertilizers in the form of masks and gloves for farmers. The solutions are: (1) Counseling on preventing fertilizer exposure to farmers, (2) Providing micronutrient supplementation (Calcium, Magnesium, Zinc, Boron and Vitamin D) to increase body immunity and detoxify fertilizer poisons, (3) Providing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) in the form of masks and gloves when carrying out inorganic fertilization on farmers. The results of community service are (1) Counseling on prevention and the impact of using organic fertilizer on health, which is carried out by conducting home visits. Farmers experienced an average increase in knowledge of safe and healthy management of fertilization and pesticide spraying, (2) providing micronutrients and explaining sources of other food ingredients containing micronutrients in their environment, (3) Providing PPE, especially hats, masks and gloves to farmers

BackgroundThe USNS COMFORT deployed to New York City to augment the inpatient health care capacity in March 2020. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection among US Navy personnel upon return from deployment, and to identify incident cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection during 1 year of follow-up.MethodsCrewmembers, the majority of whom were health care workers (HCW), were enrolled following deployment, in May 2020. PCR results from symptomatic crewmembers during deployment, and Day 0 and Day 14 post-deployment screening swabs conducted on all crewmembers, per military order, were abstracted. A questionnaire and serum were collected on Day 14 post-deployment. SARS-CoV-2 infection was defined as a positive SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein immunoglobulin G antibody (IgG) or PCR. COVID-19 related medical encounters, PCR and antibody testing results within 1 year following deployment were abstracted from the Military Health System Data Repository (MDR). There was adequate provision of personal protective equipment (PPE) in the hospital and the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out for HCW began in December 2020. ResultsOf the 1200 crewmembers, 449 were enrolled and completed the questionnaire and screening swabs, and 432 (96.2%) completed the Day 14 blood draw (Table 1). The cumulative prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection was 3.01% (13/432; 95% CI, 1.61%–5.09%). One of 17 subjects did not complete the blood draw and was PCR positive on Day 14. 433/449 (96.4%) had a PCR performed during the follow-up period (i.e. after the Day 14 post-deployment visit until Feb 2021), for HCW screening or symptomatic illness (median number of tests: 2 [IQR: 1, 2; range: 1,6]). 25 of 433 (5.8%) were PCR positive (Fig 1). 19 (76.0%) occurred in corpsmen, 23 (92.0%) were symptomatic and none were hospitalized. One asymptomatic re-infection occurred in a crewmember who was PCR negative and IgG positive at Day 14 post-deployment. Table 1. Characteristics of the overall cohort and by SARS-CoV-2 infectionFigure 1. Number of PCR tests (bar graph) and positivity rate (red line) by month in 449 USNS COMFORT crewmembers during 1-year follow-up after return from deploymentConclusionThe post-deployment prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection was low. A high proportion of HCW underwent PCR testing during 1-year follow-up but a low incidence of infection was observed. This was likely from community transmission as nosocomial transmission was mitigated by adequate PPE and vaccine roll-out. DisclosuresAll Authors: No reported disclosures

COVID-19 drive through testing: An effective strategy for conserving personal protective equipment

Occupational risk assessment was carried out for the employees of 956 different professions of 20 enterprises under study in five sectors of the economy: construction, mining, manufacturing, agriculture, transportation, and warehousing. The study was conducted using the Methodological Recommendation on the implementation of the occupational risk management system at an enterprise. This Methodological Recommendation was developed by the Republican state enterprise on the right of economic management — Republican Scientific Research Institute for Labour Protection of Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of Population of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Occupational risks were assessed in the context of specific professions and structural divisions of the enterprises by five indicators: harmful working conditions, injury risk of the labor process, safety of production equipment, availability of personal protective equipment, and risk of morbidity. Based on the results of the assessment, the degree of individual occupational risk on each assessed indicator is determined by five gradations: I — acceptable risk, II — low, III — medium, IV — high and V — very high. According to the results of the occupational risk assessment, a high risk (4 degree) was established at the enterprises of mining, construction, agricultural industries, as well as transport, and warehousing industries. According to the results of equipment safety assessment, a high risk (grade IV) was identified at the enterprises of transport and mining industries. Due to the low provision with the personal protective equipment and its non-compliance with the certification requirements, a high risk is assigned to the enterprises of mining and construction industries. It is established that a high degree of occupational risk is due to the injury risk of working conditions, insufficient provision of personal protective equipment along with their low quality, the severity and intensity of the labor process accompanied by a high degree of the employees morbidity, as well as the use of the outdated equipment in production.

Dermatitis is the 2nd rank of occupational disease after headache at PT.X (Slate pencil company). Dermatitis in PT X continues to increase every year, in 2017 there were 472 cases, 2018 there were 467 cases and in 2019 it rose to 574 cases. During the last 3 months of 2020, in July there were 30 cases, August there were 35 cases and in September it rose to 38 cases.Workers who suffer from dermatitis experience discomfort at work and experience difficulties and take a long time to complete work. In addition, the number of leave due to dermatitis also increased so that the company's productivity decreased. This study aimed to determine the determinants of contact dermatitis in workers at pencil slat manufacturing companies. This study was an observational study with a cross-sectional design. The population were all workers totaling 210 people. The number of samples of 74 workers who were taken using purposive sampling method with the criteria of permanent workers. The exclusion criteria for this study were workers with contact dermatitis caused by factors other than sawdust. The data were collected using a questionnaire that had been tested for validity and reliability. The results of the study showed that 56.8% of workers experienced contact dermatitis. The determinant factors are the use of PPE (p=0.010), Personal Hygiene (p=0.020), and Working Period (p=0.019). The unrelated factor was Age (= 0.481). Provision of personal protective equipment and supporting equipment for cleanliness of workers in the work area, as well as supervising or monitoring and giving sanctions to workers who do not comply with the use of complete personal protective equipment as well as maintaining personal hygiene.

Food handling in restaurants must pay attention to the safety, health, and quality standards that have been set in order to obtain quality food products and minimize contamination of pathogenic bacteria in food that can cause foodborne diseases. The primary target of this activity is food managers and handlers at restaurants in Babau Village, Kupang Regency. The service method is to conduct location surveys, approaches and location permits to the Babau Village Government, socialization of activities, counseling, practices of implementing Personal Protective Equipment, provision of Personal Protective Equipment, as well as monitoring and evaluation of activities. The result of this activity is an increase in the knowledge of food managers and handlers through information about individual hygiene, equipment sanitation, kitchen sanitation, hygiene, sanitation of food and processed food to food managers and handlers, and participants can practice the correct application of personal protective equipment use.