Veille documentaire MTPH

Auteur     Edward M Fisher
Auteur     Ronald E Shaffer
Publication     Journal of occupational and environmental hygiene
ISSN     1545-9632
Date     Mar 14, 2014
Résumé     Public health organizations, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), are increasingly recommending the use of N95 filtering facepiece respirators (FFRs) in healthcare settings. For infection control purposes, the usual practice is to discard FFRs after close contact with a patient (« single use »). However, in some situations, such as during contact with tuberculosis patients, limited FFR reuse (i.e., repeated donning and doffing of the same FFR by the same person) is practiced. A related practice, extended use, involves wearing the same FFR for multiple patient encounters without doffing. Extended use and limited FFR reuse have been recommended during infectious disease outbreaks and pandemics to conserve FFR supplies. This commentary examines CDC recommendations related to FFR extended use and limited reuse and analyzes available data from the literature to provide a relative estimate of the risks of these practices compared to single use.