The source control effect of personal protection equipment and physical barrier on short-range airborne transmission

COVID-19 has spread around the globe and infections are still rising despite the development of vaccinations and protocols. Various mutations of the SARS-CoV-2 virus have arisen with a greater rate of transmission and increased virulence. New found research has proven that the new strains of the virus are more virulent and use airborne aerosolized transmission to enable long range spread of the virus. By virtue of the fact that the virus spreads through such means, increases the risk of transmission and contamination highly as the virus can be transmitted via long range and through common ventilation and duct systems. In light of this it is now pertinent for legislation to support the use of personal protection equipment to safeguard the health of the public.

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Outbreak Of Nipah Encephalitis In Greater Faridpur District

Faridpur Medical College Journal ◽

10.3329/fmcj.v5i2.6825 ◽

1970 ◽

Vol 5 (2) ◽

pp. 63-65

Author(s):

MY Ali ◽

SA Fattah ◽

MM Islam ◽

MA Hossain ◽

SY Ali

Keyword(s):

Health Personnel ◽

Viral Encephalitis ◽

Review Article ◽

Personal Protection ◽

Emerging Infections ◽

College Hospital ◽

Personal Protection Equipment ◽

Medical College ◽

History Of ◽

Deadly Disease

Nipah viral encephalitis is one of the fatal re-emerging infections especially in southeast Asia. After its outbreak in Malaysia and Singapore; repeated outbreaks occurred at western part of Bangladesh especially in Faridpur region. Besides, sporadic attacks appear to occur in the country throughout the year. Here two Nipah outbreaks in greater Faridpur district in 2003 and 2004 are described along with brief review on transmission of the virus. Where the history of illness among patients are very much in favour of man to man transmission. Moreover the death of an intern doctor from Nipah encephalitis who was involved in managing such patients in Faridpur Medical College Hospital strongly suggests man to man transmission of this virus. So, aim of this review article to make the health personnel and general people be aware about man to man transmission of virus, so that they can adapt personal protection equipment (PPE) for their protection against this deadly disease. DOI: 10.3329/fmcj.v5i2.6825Faridpur Med. Coll. J. 2010;5(2):63-65

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Eye in COVID-19: A Brief Review

Pakistan Journal of Ophthalmology ◽

10.36351/pjo.v36i3.1040 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 36 (3) ◽

Author(s):

Muhammad Mohsin Ali ◽

Qudsia Anwar Dar ◽

Zahid Kamal ◽

Alishba Khan

Keyword(s):

Infection Control ◽

Respiratory Symptoms ◽

Literature Search ◽

Control Measures ◽

Transmission Route ◽

Ocular Manifestation ◽

Personal Protection ◽

Personal Protection Equipment ◽

Ocular Manifestations ◽

Infection Control Measures

This is a brief review covering the currently available literature on ocular manifestations of COVID-19, andprevention strategies for ophthalmologists. A literature search was carried out of Pubmed, Google Scholar andWHO database of publications on COVID. Keywords used in the search were eye, ocular manifestations,ophthalmology, COVID-19, nCoV-2019, and coronavirus disease. All available articles were reviewed and thosepertinent to the study topic were included. Considering the dearth of information available, ophthalmology journals were also searched separately for relevant articles. Major ocular manifestation of COVID reported in literature is red eye, which usually presents before the onset of respiratory symptoms. Since the eye can be a possible transmission route for SARS-CoV-2, infection control measures should be undertaken by ophthalmologists, including use of personal protection equipment and eye/face covering. A framework for structuring ophthalmological services during the COVID pandemic is also presented in this review.

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Income, wealth and use of personal protection equipment in the Mekong Delta

Environmental Science and Pollution Research ◽

10.1007/s11356-021-13449-w ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Matteo Migheli

Keyword(s):

Low Income ◽

Mekong Delta ◽

Developed Countries ◽

Household Wealth ◽

Protective Equipment ◽

Personal Protection ◽

Personal Protection Equipment ◽

Management Techniques ◽

Using Data ◽

Developing And Developed Countries

AbstractBoth in developing and developed countries, farmers often do not protect themselves adequately, especially when applying agrochemicals that are dangerous for their health. The issue is relevant because insufficient protection is between the causes leading to intoxication of farmers and workers who handle these products. The literature suggests that both lack of training and information and low income may explain why, especially in developing countries, protective equipment is under-used. Using data from the Mekong Delta, this study addresses the issue of whether income and household wealth may help explaining the use of incomplete protections against pesticides. The results suggest that income, more than wealth, is a reason why Vietnamese farmers operating in the Mekong Delta fail in using adequate protections. In particular, the data suggest that they may prefer to divert resources to increasing the production of their fields or to buying goods that may be used both as protection and as everyday garments. This behaviour leads to underinvestment in some important protective goods. Possible public interventions to mitigate the problem are suggested; in particular, the promotion of integrated pest management techniques could be useful.

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Self-Collection of Saliva Specimens as a Suitable Alternative to Nasopharyngeal Swabs for the Diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 by RT-qPCR

Journal of Clinical Medicine ◽

10.3390/jcm10020299 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (2) ◽

pp. 299

Author(s):

Camino Trobajo-Sanmartín ◽

Marta Adelantado ◽

Ana Navascués ◽

María J. Guembe ◽

Isabel Rodrigo-Rincón ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Chronic Conditions ◽

Saliva Sample ◽

Virus Detection ◽

Kappa Coefficient ◽

Nasopharyngeal Swab ◽

Personal Protection ◽

Personal Protection Equipment ◽

Suitable Alternative ◽

Lysis Buffer ◽

Sensitivity Specificity

A nasopharyngeal swab is a sample used for the diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Saliva is a sample easier to obtain and the risk of contagion for the professional is lower. This study aimed to evaluate the utility of saliva for the diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection. This prospective study involved 674 patients with suspected SARS-CoV-2 infection. Paired nasopharyngeal and saliva samples were processed by RT-qPCR. Sensitivity, specificity, and kappa coefficient were used to evaluate the results from both samples. We considered the influence of age, symptoms, chronic conditions, and sample processing with lysis buffer. Of the 674 patients, 636 (94.4%) had valid results from both samples. The virus detection in saliva compared to a nasopharyngeal sample (gold standard) was 51.9% (95% CI: 46.3%–57.4%) and increased to 91.6% (95% CI: 86.7%–96.5%) when the cycle threshold (Ct) was ≤ 30. The specificity of the saliva sample was 99.1% (95% CI: 97.0%–99.8%). The concordance between samples was 75% (κ = 0.50; 95% CI: 0.45–0.56). The Ct values were significantly higher in saliva. In conclusion, saliva sample utility is limited for clinical diagnosis, but could be a useful alternative for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 in massive screening studies, when the availability of trained professionals for sampling or personal protection equipment is limited.

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Sources of SARS-CoV-2 and Other Microorganisms in Dental Aerosols

Journal of Dental Research ◽

10.1177/00220345211015948 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 002203452110159

Author(s):

A.P. Meethil ◽

S. Saraswat ◽

P.P. Chaudhary ◽

S.M. Dabdoub ◽

P.S. Kumar

Keyword(s):

Infection Control ◽

Dental Treatment ◽

Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction ◽

The United States ◽

Control Measures ◽

Personal Protection ◽

Personal Protection Equipment ◽

Linear Discriminant ◽

16S Sequencing ◽

Asymptomatic Patients

On March 16, 2020, 198,000 dentists in the United States closed their doors to patients, fueled by concerns that aerosols generated during dental procedures are potential vehicles for transmission of respiratory pathogens through saliva. Our knowledge of these aerosol constituents is sparse and gleaned from case reports and poorly controlled studies. Therefore, we tracked the origins of microbiota in aerosols generated during ultrasonic scaling, implant osteotomy, and restorative procedures by combining reverse transcriptase quantitative polymerase chain reaction (to identify and quantify SARS-CoV-2) and 16S sequencing (to characterize the entire microbiome) with fine-scale enumeration and source tracking. Linear discriminant analysis of Bray-Curtis dissimilarity distances revealed significant class separation between the salivary microbiome and aerosol microbiota deposited on the operator, patient, assistant, or the environment ( P < 0.01, analysis of similarities). We also discovered that 78% of the microbiota in condensate could be traced to the dental irrigant, while saliva contributed to a median of 0% of aerosol microbiota. We also identified low copy numbers of SARS-CoV-2 virus in the saliva of several asymptomatic patients but none in aerosols generated from these patients. Together, the bacterial and viral data encourage us to conclude that when infection control measures are used, such as preoperative mouth rinses and intraoral high-volume evacuation, dental treatment is not a factor in increasing the risk for transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in asymptomatic patients and that standard infection control practices are sufficiently capable of protecting personnel and patients from exposure to potential pathogens. This information is of immediate urgency, not only for safe resumption of dental treatment during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, but also to inform evidence-based selection of personal protection equipment and infection control practices at a time when resources are stretched and personal protection equipment needs to be prioritized.

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Slinger Personal Protection System at Load-Lifting Mechanism Operation Employing Radio-Frequency Identification Devices

Occupational Safety in Industry ◽

10.24000/0409-2961-2021-9-38-44 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 38-44

Author(s):

A.A. Korotkiy ◽

◽

E.V. Egelskaya ◽

V.V. Egelskiy ◽

A.A. Maslennikov ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Radio Frequency Identification ◽

Information Technologies ◽

Industrial Safety ◽

Personal Protection ◽

Personal Protection Equipment ◽

Usual Practice ◽

Hazardous Production ◽

Special Rules ◽

Hazardous Zone ◽

Special Working

The rapid implementation of information technologies into all strata of the civil society activities has already significantly modified lives of every citizen, including production processes. The usual practice is using electronic safety devices in the technical units, including hoisting cranes. The consumer market offers remote control systems for equipment; continuous video surveillance over workflows is widely employed. Unmanned productions and unmanned technologies are being implemented, which is especially relevant at operation of potentially harmful and hazardous units. However, for a human actively participating in workflows, control and maintenance of technical devices, his/her safety during fulfillment of working functions is still a matter of great importance. In Russia, the requirements to production employees safety are determined by legislative and regulatory documents in the sphere of labor protection. Special rules of industrial safety are applied to hazardous production facilities. An important aspect of slinger protection against hazardous and harmful factors of production during operation of a hoisting crane as well as observing production discipline is using personal protection equipment and special working clothes. The constant monitoring of safety requirements in order to ensure their implementation in the real-time mode via the RFID-tags integrated into the elements of personal protection equipment and special working clothes is substantiated. The information on slinger location and availability of the required protection equipment within the hazardous zone of hoisting crane operation received to a mobile device of a person responsible for safe operation enables control of the situation, prevention of adverse events and minimization of risk of injury.

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Risk assessment for long and short range airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2, indoors and outdoors, using carbon dioxide measurements.

10.1101/2021.05.04.21256352 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Florian Poydenot ◽

Ismael Abdourahamane ◽

Elsa Caplain ◽

Samuel Der ◽

Jacques Haiech ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Health Policy ◽

Public Health Policy ◽

Short Range ◽

Epidemiological Data ◽

Public Spaces ◽

Viral Transmission ◽

Transmission Risk ◽

Reproduction Rate ◽

Airborne Transmission

A quantitative analysis of the viral transmission risk in public spaces al- lows us to identify the dominant mechanisms that a proactive public health policy can act upon to reduce risk, and to evaluate the reduction of risk that can be obtained. The contribution of public spaces to the propa- gation of SARS-CoV-2 can be reduced to a level necessary for a declining epidemic, i.e. an overall reproduction rate below one. Here, we revisit the quantitative assessment of indoor and outdoor transmission risk. We show that the long-range aerosol transmission is controlled by the flow rate of fresh air and by the mask filtering quality, and is quantitatively re- lated to the CO2 concentration, regardless the room volume and the num- ber of people. The short-range airborne transmission is investigated ex- perimentally using dedicated dispersion experiments performed in two shopping malls. Exhaled aerosols are dispersed by turbulent draughts in a cone, leading to a concentration inversely proportional to the squared dis- tance and to the flow velocity. We show that the average infection dose, called the viral quantum, can be determined from epidemiological data in a manner consistent with biological experimental data. Practical implications. The results provide quantitative guidance useful for making rational public health policy decisions to prevent the dominant routes of viral transmission through reinforced ventilation, air purification, mechanical dispersion using fans, and incentivizing the wear- ing of correctly fitted, quality facial masks (surgical masks, possibly cov- ered by another fabric mask, or non-medical FFP2 masks). Taken to- gether, such measures significantly reduce the airborne transmission risk of SARS-CoV-2.

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