rebecca 
They are essential to minimize the risks of transmission in a pandemic such as coronavirus. How to make rational use.
Personal protection elements (PPE) are essential not only to protect health personnel from pathogens but also to prevent their transmission to patients. And both its correct use and the administration of this finite resource acquire greater importance in the midst of a pandemic such as a coronavirus.
Since the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned of the need to make rational use of these resources. In this sense, he insisted, like the local authorities, that professional chinstraps must be intended for health personnel and that people must use a homemade mask to go out.
Chinstraps are one of the PPE, a category that includes other equally necessary elements to reduce the risk of transmission of, for example, viruses and bacteria from blood and organic fluids.
what and for what
Each PPE has a function and also a recommendation for use, depending on the maneuvers that health personnel must carry out and also on the availability and the general picture of the situation in which these practices must be carried out.
- Surgical or triple-layer chinstrap: seeks to avoid contagion through droplets/microdroplets.
- N95 chinstrap: it has greater filtering and prevents contagion during aerosol generation maneuvers.
- Face mask or goggles: prevents contact with the ocular mucosa and protects the N95 chinstrap from splashes in maneuvers with aerosols.
- Gloves: prevent contagion through contact.
- Waterproof camisole and overalls: both prevent contagion through contact.
- Cap and boots: only used for fluid contact procedures.
How to use them
Guidelines were established to guide doctors, nurses, orderlies, and other health workers during the pandemic, both to protect themselves individually and to guarantee patient safety. Experts established three levels of care and general guidelines for each of them.
- Level 1: contact with patients and no risk of exposure to bodily fluids. It is required to have protection at less than one meter, a surgical mask, a contact shirt, and gloves.
- Level 2: contact with patients and risk of exposure to bodily fluids. In this case, eye protection is a general indication and the surgical mask, water-repellent nightgown, gloves, and boots are added in case of risk of splashing for cleaning personnel.
- Level 3: maneuver with aerosols. This is the case in which greater protection is needed and for this, it is mandatory to use a face mask, eye protection, N95 mask, water-repellent nightgown, gloves, and boots or shoe covers in the operating room.
At all levels, the cap is added for people with long hair or in the operating room, and waterproof footwear.
How to administer PPE
Always thinking of guaranteeing patient safety but also of managing these elements efficiently, the documents establish precise indications for three possible scenarios: sufficient resources and covered demand; insufficient resources and covered demand; and insufficient resources and excessive demand.
Thus, for example, if there are sufficient resources and a covered demand, the surgical mask can be used to care for suspected patients without generating aerosols and discarded after that use. But in the event that resources are insufficient and demand is excessive, it can be used (as long as aerosol generation maneuvers are not carried out) until it gets wet, broken or dirty, covered with a face mask.
In the same way, they point out that the N95 mask is reusable for 15 days or extended use 4-8 hours or until it breaks, gets dirty or stains, but it is allowed to be re-sterilized under certain conditions.
Other protection measures
For optimal use of PPE, staff must both put them on and especially remove them correctly, according to guidelines already established by the WHO.
In addition, there are other standard precautions also designed to reduce the risk of microorganism transmission, which should be applied to all patients requiring care by all healthcare workers and in all healthcare settings. These are correct hand and respiratory hygiene, the safe handling of hospital waste and sharp or sharp elements, the sterilization and disinfection of devices, and the cleanliness of the environment.
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