PPE, COVID-19 and Healthcare workers

Q: Proper use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) while taking care of COVID-19 patients may provide? (select one)

A) partial protection
B) complete protection


Answer: B

It should be assuring to healthcare workers that multiple studies have now shown that proper use of PPE as well as donning and offing provides complete protection from the transmission while taking care of COVID-19 patients.  One large study of 420 providers from Wuhan China who performed at least one aerosol-generating procedure, none of them contracted the virus. Similarly, more or less compatible results were reported from New York and London, where the risk of transmission is not higher from the communities.

#infectious-diseases
#COVID-19


References:

1. Liu M, Cheng SZ, Xu KW, et al. Use of personal protective equipment against coronavirus disease 2019 by healthcare professionals in Wuhan, China: cross sectional study. BMJ 2020; 369:m2195.

2. Hunter E, Price DA, Murphy E, et al. First experience of COVID-19 screening of health-care workers in England. Lancet 2020; 395:e77. 

3. Nagler AR, Goldberg ER, Aguero-Rosenfeld ME, et al. Early Results from SARS-CoV-2 PCR testing of Healthcare Workers at an Academic Medical Center in New York City. Clin Infect Dis 2020.