Mask Respirator

Non-ventilator-hospital associated pneumonia prevention is quickly becoming the hot topic among infection preventionists.

We need to have a paradigm shift in the way we view this virus, planning and implementing strategies to allow us to live with an endemic pathogen.

Take 5 minutes to catch up on Infection Control Today®’s highlights for the week ending July 16.

Take 5 minutes to catch up on Infection Control Today®’s highlights for the week ending July 9.

Two obstacles that inhibit the use of face masks among health care professionals include concern about how’ll they’ll affect communication, and perceived discomfort. Attitudes improve greatly with use.

The FDA revokes approval of some masks and decontamination methods that it had OK’d during the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Wearers press a button on the mask and within 90 minutes are fed information about whether SARS-CoV-2 has been detected on a patient’s breath, says a study.

Take 5 minutes to catch up on Infection Control Today®’s highlights for the week ending June 18.

The most poorly fitting mask can almost double the risk of infection for the wearers and even those around them.

Successful onboarding of candidates requires an orientation that includes all aspects of the position. What are the responsibilities of an IP? Their main function is to identify and mitigate infection risks.

The new CDC mask guidance came down so quickly that it just didn’t give people time to prepare, and it also ignores that we still have a majority of the population not fully vaccinated.

In the study, cotton masks stopped 45%-73% of coronavirus aerosols. Masks with nanofiber filters blocked 99.9% of the particles.

Infection preventionists need to stress the importance of aerosolization with increased recommendations for N-95 masks and we all need to realize that a prerequisite of reopening a business, school or public venue should be safe ventilation.

The truth is that variants will occur where the virus spreads and until SARS-CoV-2 is controlled everywhere, it won’t be controlled anywhere. What is occurring in India is a prime example of this.

Nurses need a seat at the table when discussing PPE stockpiling and purchasing practices to share their lived experiences and help the team discover where practice deviated from plans. Infection preventionists should support the nurses in these discussions as allies.

IPs and other health care professionals needed to improvise. That improvisation led to investigations into how many times an N95 can be reused and still keep SARS- CoV-2 at bay.

Christina Yen, MD: “For any infection preventionists who are thinking about or are reviewing the need for VHP sometime in the future, just know that those colleagues that we’ve relied on this time around are going to be there and are going to be your partners in the VHP process.”

Surgical masks offer better protection against aerosolized particles than face shields or even better than face shields and surgical masks used together, study finds.

When outbreaks have been reported in hospitals that are using universal masking, unmasked exposure to other health care workers is often the cause. Transmissions have been traced to break rooms and cafeterias.

Here, we will review 3 common sterilization modalities currently in use for N95 respirator decontamination, how they work, and their strengths and limitations.

Beau Wangtrakuldee, PhD: “In the health care industry in general, small sizes are typically based on Caucasian males, so once you get to women who truly have smaller frames there are no products available for them.”

Sharon Ward-Fore, MS, MT(ASCP), CIC: "We’ve learned the hard way that restaurants, office settings, hair salons, fitness centers, and schools have really suffered for the lack of guidance by professionals like infection preventionists."

The shape and material composition of the N95 respirators varied widely from manufacturer to manufacturer, which can result in variations in the efficacy of a particular method from one product to the next.

Daniel Burnett, MD, MBA: “The aerosols, the things that are the true danger and that can hang in the air for hours, depending on their size, are still released around the edges and around the nose of cloth masks. A cloth mask does very little to protect you.”

A group of scientists and physicians charge that the CDC’s current guidance on masking might not be enough to meet the threat of COVID-19 variants.

The CDC encourages double-masking if it’s done correctly, meaning with a tight fit. The agency updated the guidance with an eye on worrisome new COVID variants.

Hospitalizations for COVID-19 dropped by a statistically significant 5.5 percentage points for adults from 18 to 64, compared to the hospitalization rates in the 4 weeks preceding the implementation of the mask mandates.

Double-masking can prove more cumbersome for many. If the goal is to protect the mask underneath, perhaps consider a face shield or a strategy for cleaning the mask more frequently.

Infection preventionists have the skill set to provide guidance beyond the health care setting. We know how to select PPE and how to use it. Cleaning and disinfection are like breathing to us.

Though tough months lie ahead for infection preventionists and other healthcare professionals, hope remains that at some point in 2021 things will begin to settle down. In the end, it comes down to a simple formula: We win, COVID-19 loses.