Developing a methodology to collect empirical data that informs policy and practices for stockpiling personal protective equipment.

Autor: Greenawald LA; National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory, Pittsburgh, PA. Electronic address: LGreenawald@cdc.gov., Moore SM; National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory, Pittsburgh, PA., Wizner K; MDGuidelines, ReedGroup Ltd. Westminster, CO. Former Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health Fellow, CDC NIOSH NPPTL, Pittsburgh, PA., Yorio PL; National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory, Pittsburgh, PA.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: American journal of infection control [Am J Infect Control] 2021 Feb; Vol. 49 (2), pp. 166-173. Date of Electronic Publication: 2020 Jul 10.
DOI: 10.1016/j.ajic.2020.07.010
Abstrakt: Background: Personal protective equipment (PPE) are stockpiled across the nation to offset supply depletion during public health emergencies. Stockpiled PPE inventories vary across the United States by type, model, quantity, and the conditions in which they are stored. Over the past decade, federal, state, and local stockpile managers have had concerns for the viability of aging PPE.
Methods: To understand factors that may affect stockpiled PPE, we explored the breadth of stockpile storage conditions and respirator and surgical gown inventories through collaboration with the national PPE community, qualitative observations collected at 10 different US stockpiles, and by compiling stockpile PPE inventories and climate data from a convenience sample of US stockpiles.
Results: The aggregated inventory from 20 stockpiles is reported, accounting for approximately 53 million respirators. Most respirators (69% or 35.8 million) have been stored between 5 and 10 years. Upon visiting 10 stockpile facilities, we report on the storage conditions observed and summarize the storage environment data collected.
Conclusions: This is the first study to identify common PPE types, inventories, and storage conditions across federal, state, and local government stockpile facilities as well as health care organization-managed caches. These findings will be leveraged to guide the development of sampling protocols for air-purifying respirators and surgical gowns in US stockpiles to understand the performance viability after long-term storage.
(Copyright © 2020 Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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