Personal Protective Equipment

What happened to 11 healthcare workers who, without proper PPE, treated patients confirmed to have COVID-19. Answer? Nothing. That is, they did not contract the disease.

National Nurses United wants hospitals to establish protocols in which nurses are immediately notified when a patient who might have COVID-19 is admitted.

Thanks to a reduction of imported PPE, 36% of hospital respondents expect large-scale PPE shortages, while 54% have imposed PPE conservation protocols.

WHO's Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, warns: “We can’t stop COVID-19 without protecting our health workers.” 

The whistleblower alleges that she was unfairly and improperly reassigned after voicing her concerns about the safety of HHS workers.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization, notes that this is the first time that China has included numbers of healthcare workers infected in the data it has provided on the spread of the epidemic.

Proper PPE for the Wuhan coronavirus includes powered air purifying respirators (PAPRs), an N95 mask, eye protection, gloves, and gown.

Siyang HolyMed in China, the vendor used by Cardinal Health to make the gowns, did so at 2 unapproved sites where the gowns were exposed to air particulate and other contaminants. Employees also ate in the production area.

Although the odds of another patient with EVD walking into your emergency department are slim, wouldn’t you rather be prepared?

Serious geopolitical and social forces are converging to create the conditions, on a scale unique in history, for a major respiratory pandemic. Prioritizing the protection of healthcare workers will be key to containing such a pandemic.

How over-the-head isolation gowns increase staff and visitor safety.

Material scientists at the University of Manchester, working in collaboration with universities in China, have created a 'durable and washable, concrete-like' composite material made from antibacterial copper nanoparticles.