Infectious Disease
The universal N95 use by HCWs in SARS-CoV-2 hotspots could reduce nosocomial transmission
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Klompas reports that he has received grants from the CDC for COVID-19 studies, grants to his institution outside of this article, and royalties from UpToDate for articles on unrelated topics. Please see the article for all relevant financial information from the other authors.
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Because SARS-CoV-2 is most contagious before symptoms onset, universal use of N95 respirators by healthcare providers in regions with high community infection rates could reduce nosocomial transmission, researchers argued.
“In times of increased SARS-CoV-2 rates in the community, hospitals should consider more widespread use of N95, including for the care of patients who are not known to have COVID-19 as they may be breastfeeding Are carriers of COVID-19, which can infect health workers, or health workers can be a silent carrier who can infect patients and colleagues. ” Michael Klompas, MD, MPH, Professor of population medicine at Harvard Medical School and hospital epidemiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Healio said. “These considerations are most important in populations where vaccination rates are low.”
In a letter in Clinical Infectious Diseases, Klompas and colleagues outlined three main reasons N95 masks should be worn by health care workers caring for patients who have not suspected or confirmed COVID-19 in high incidence areas in the community has been.
The first reason is that SARS-CoV-2 infections are “generally more contagious” before and after the onset of symptoms. Additionally, patients with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 are often treated according to strict safety protocols, which leads providers who care for patients on non-COVID-19 wards to sometimes assume they are not infected and take preventive measures like that Checking the fit of their less masks. The final reason, they wrote, is that health care workers pose a “significant risk” to patients without COVID-19 in non-COVID wards.
“Presymptomatic and asymptomatic patients and healthcare workers are responsible for most of the transmissions in hospitals,” said Klompas. “Pre-symptomatic and asymptomatic patients can infect other patients and medical staff. Presymptomatic and asymptomatic healthcare workers can infect their patients and colleagues. “
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