AIIMS suggests re-use of PPE for treating COVID-19 patients to resolve shortages

Taking measures to safeguard its workers against coronavirus, the AIIMS administration on Tuesday asked them to reuse the Personal Protective Equipment PPE for treating COVID-19 patients to resolve shortages.

According to a statement, "Decontamination and reuse of PPEs may provide another solution by extending existing on-hand supplies. Currently, decontamination of PPEs for purposes of reuse is not recommended, primarily because of concerns that decontamination would degrade the performance especially of the respirator."

It also added, "Preliminary work on the decontamination of N95 masks has been published in recent years. However, given the uncertainties on the impact of decontamination on respirator performance, these should not be worn by HCWs when performing or present for an aerosol-generating procedure."

The statement further added, "The methods available for disinfection are only considered as extraordinary last-resort methods in the event of imminent shortages of PPE. They should only be applied after a careful evaluation of the situation and after exploring the possibility of resource-conscious, rational PPE use, for example by extending a respirator’s lifespan beyond its normal limits."

The Resident Doctor's Association (RDA) of AIIMS earlier had written to the AIIMS administration raising the issue of inadequate PPEs in the hospital. "Sadly found that most of the wards do not have adequate universal precaution components," the RDA has stated in their letter.

Personal protective equipment (PPE) includes N95 masks, gowns and goggles among others.