Open AccessPersonal protective equipment (PPE) in a pandemic: Approaches to PPE preservation for South African healthcare facilities
Author(s) -
Christine Le Roux,
Angela Dramowski
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
samj. south african medical journal/south african medical journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.527
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 2078-5135
pISSN - 0256-9574
DOI - 10.7196/samj.2020.v110i6.14831
Subject(s) - personal protective equipment , medicine , pandemic , health care , economic shortage , covid-19 , window of opportunity , healthcare worker , medical emergency , virology , economic growth , infectious disease (medical specialty) , linguistics , philosophy , disease , pathology , government (linguistics) , outbreak , economics , real time computing , computer science
Personal protective equipment (PPE) is key to protecting healthcare workers from COVID-19 infection, but the pandemic has disrupted supply chains globally and necessitated rapid review of the scientific evidence for PPE re-use. In South Africa, where the COVID-19 epidemic is still developing, healthcare facilities have a short window of opportunity to improve PPE supply chains, train staff on prudent PPE use, and devise plans to track and manage the inevitable increases in PPE demand. This article discusses the available PPE preservation strategies and addresses the issue of decontamination and re-use of N95 respirators as a last-resort strategy for critical shortages during the pandemic.