Articles Tagged With: N95
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Healthcare Workers, CDC at Odds Over COVID Precautions
Inundated with criticism from healthcare workers, highly vulnerable patients, and those with long COVID, advisors to the CDC must make a Solomonic decision. At a time when the CDC is trying to simplify and normalize community precautions for SARS-CoV-2, initial efforts to do so in the hospital have backfired spectacularly.
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CDC Halts HICPAC to Review Masks, N95s, Long COVID
Citing pushback from stakeholder groups, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention rejected new recommendations for air transmission precautions by its infection control advisory panel, asking it to consider with expert consultation this question: “Should N95 respirators be recommended for all pathogens that spread by the air?”
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CDC: PPE Should be Readily Available for Workers
New draft patient isolation guidelines recently approved by advisors to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention emphasized that healthcare workers have N95 respirators, masks, eye protection, and other personal protective equipment readily available.
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Healthcare Workers Weather Respiratory Onslaught
In a seemingly interminable viral winter, healthcare workers are facing a rare convergence of a pandemic virus and unusually high levels of seasonal flu and respiratory syncytial virus. Some are tired and sick; others sick of being tired. As EDs stretch capacity to the limits to treat respiratory patients, others with various conditions and critical needs are backed up.
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Occupational Monkeypox in Healthcare Workers
Although the overall risk of transmission is low, at least two healthcare workers have been occupationally infected with monkeypox virus (MPXV) in the United States. In an unusual case, two caregivers were infected by environmental fomites in the home of a patient in Brazil. Although rare, healthcare workers have been infected in previous outbreaks, and there likely are a fair number of unreported cases, given the stigma associated with MPXV.
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U.S. N95 Respirator Supply Finally Deemed Adequate
Federal regulators remove devices from shortage list.
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Monkeypox Spread to 29 Non-Endemic Nations Unprecedented
The near-simultaneous emergence of monkeypox in the United States, Europe, and other regions where it rarely is seen has raised questions whether the virus could become endemic beyond West and Central Africa, where it is common.
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OSHA Urged to Protect HCWs from Airborne COVID-19
The healthcare community is pushing back against OSHA adopting a more flexible final COVID-19 rule that could change with public health guidelines. The agency is finalizing its Emergency Temporary Standard to protect healthcare workers from COVID-19. -
Occupational Health Departments Hit Hard by Pandemic
In 2020, many individual clinical departments were overwhelmed when a series of COVID-19 surges began to inundate hospitals with infected patients. Suddenly, healthcare workers were imperiled. It fell to employee health professionals to work with colleagues and protect the workforce in a situation not seen in a century.
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The Joint Commission Issues Safety Tips for Reprocessing Critical Gear
The guidance includes specific reminders about single-use devices.