Infection Control

Tip of the week: Think about supplies when planning for pandemic influenza

Infection Control Weekly Monitor, December 24, 2008

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When it comes to emergency preparedness, ICPs may want to rethink the amount of supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE) their hospital will need in case of pandemic influenza.

For instance, in a 24-hour exercise in a British hospital, healthcare workers who followed the government’s official IC guidelines for pandemic influenza for one day, used 10 times as many gloves as usual, according to a study. The British guidelines call for workers to wear gloves, a plastic apron or gown, and a surgical mask when working within three feet of pandemic flu patients.

Workers also generated three times as much medical waste, and found that many tasks took longer than usual, according to the report, published online by the Journal of Infection Control. Healthcare workers used far greater than normal quantities of basic PPE during the exercise, including gloves, surgical masks, and disposable aprons. The study suggests that during the height of a pandemic, for instance, the use of masks would increase 450-fold. For more about the study, click here.



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