Posted on 09/11/2014 6:50:54 AM PDT by null and void
No they do not. Those “showers” are for chemical spills, not biohazard decon. Biohazard stuff gets incinerated. Showering off the gear would just spread the contamination even further.
The chance of CERTAIN contamination from not wearing PPE is probably less desirable than the POSSIBLE chance of inappropriately handling one when you take it off.
Ken Isaacs testimony here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUKkP9qBpjQ
One millimeter of exposed skin is a death warrant.
ummm....health workers know that they have to remove their gloves without contaminating themselves. Why wouldn’t they know that they have to use the same caution when removing the suit?
The suits do not get “deconned.” The suits are designed to be worn once and then incinerated.
Doffing the gear is a methodical process of slowly turning each layer inside-out and stepping through successive decon areas until you step across the “clean-line” and toss your gloves.
The suits do not get “deconned.” The suits are designed to be worn once and then incinerated.
Doffing the gear is a methodical process of slowly turning each layer inside-out and stepping through successive decon areas until you step across the “clean-line” and toss your gloves.
Someone mentioned that it looks like UF basketball coach Billy Donovan in that first picture. Does anyone know anything about that? Did he visit the Matterhorn one day?
Yup. 10% bleach or some other agent known to kill ebola.
While I can easily remove gloves without touching any part of the contaminated surface, I don’t think removing the suit without touching any part of the outer surface would be quite so easy. Particularly if it was stuck to you with sweat...
Even taking off gloves without touching part of the outer surface is tricky, but you get the hang of it. Although I wouldn’t want to bet my life I do it perfectly every time....
I guess the corollary to that statement is to not buy a used HAZMAT suit from Africa on eBay.
Even a brief bleach wash or wipe down of the outside of the suit should go a long way before exiting the suit.
XLNT report on Ebola on Frontline (PBS) last night. Half an hour in the bush and at bush hospitals with Doctors without Borders….those guys are amazing. Saving some lives tho they have little to work with. The other half of the program was devoted to Boko Harum, and the equally savage Nigerian forces who are supposedly after them. Ghastly country, miserable people, vicious soldiers, both official Nigerian and Boko Harum…vicious.
Feeling very lucky to be living in America.
precisely....plus there is a proper manner that the suit should be removed and it involves a decontamination of the outer surfaces before removal
They have people spraying down the suits before they get out of them - quite a few of the stories posted have pictures of that process. In fact, that was Nancy Writebol’s job when she got Ebola .... a job that may not have been as “low risk” as she thought, although she could have been infected elsewhere .... interesting that she sometimes didn’t wear a mask ....
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“My responsibility originally was I was going to mix the bleach solutions,” Writebol said. She ended up helping doctors and nurses suit up before they entered the isolation unit, and then helped them remove the suits correctly when they came out.
It’s a vital job — the layers of gloves, the goggles, the boots, the body suits all protect workers from the virus-laden bodily fluids that spread infection. But all that protection does no good if the doctors and nurses get even a few drops of that contaminated mess on their hands or skin, or in their eyes, as they pull the gear off.
Nancy helped spray everyone down, get the layers off in the right order and then made sure everything got either burned or disinfected.
“I was considered to be in a low-risk zone,” she said. “There was a line, an actual line on the floor that I didn’t cross. When they came out and I decontaminated them, I never touched them. I was wearing a gown, I was wearing gloves, and sometimes I was wearing a mask, but not all the time.” But she always had a gown and gloves on. “There was never a fear that I would be contaminated.”
It looks like the procedure in Africa is to spray the suits with a bleach solution and then dry and re-use them. Probably due to a shortage of suits, something likely to happen pretty quickly in an area with a significant outbreak.
The washing process itself is hazardous, since contaminated airborne droplets can be created during the washing.
I’m sure there’s a method for safely removing the suit and those wearing it should have been taught
Wow. That is frightening.
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