Courtesy of American Journal of Infection Control – http://www.ajicjournal.org
During a pandemic the possibility of PPE shortage is not just a possibility; it is a real threat resulting in potentially catastrophic consequences for health care personnel.
In case of supply shortages, the reuse of disposable filtering facepiece respirators (FFR) could be a lifesaving necessity and decontamination with Ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI) of used FFRs, a viable option.
Experiments and their results show, that the use of UVGI can in fact be very effective. Twelve samples were contaminated with H1N1 influenza; after being decontaminated with UVGI, data shows that these samples were able to be reused without difficulties.
The data clearly suggest that we can in fact consider reusing UVGI decontaminated FFR’s, but being careful in considering model, material type and design of the mask.
