Mar 17th, 2023 - Dental healthcare personnel (DHCP) are at high risk of exposure to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We sought to identify how DHCP changed their use of personal protective equipment (PPE) as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, and to pilot an educational video designed to improve knowledge of proper PPE use. The study comprised 2 sets of semistructured qualitative interviews. The study was c...

Feb 15th, 2023 - Infection prevention and control (IPC) measures are easily adoptable activities to prevent the spread of infection to patients as well as among health-care workers (HCWs). This cross-sectional study evaluated the adherence to IPC measures among HCWs working at coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) treatment centers in Punjab, Pakistan. HCWs were recruited by means of convenient sampling through G...

Jan 31st, 2023 - Viral epidemics or pandemics of acute respiratory infections (ARIs) pose a global threat. Examples are influenza (H1N1) caused by the H1N1pdm09 virus in 2009, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2003, and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by SARS-CoV-2 in 2019. Antiviral drugs and vaccines may be insufficient to prevent their spread. This is an update of a Cochrane Review last ...

Jan 10th, 2023 - Healthcare workers (HCWs) employed personal protective equipment (PPE) during the COVID-19 pandemic, crucial to protecting themselves from infection. To highlight the efficacy of PPE in preventing environmental infection among HCWs, a systematic review was conducted in line with PRISMA guidance. A search of the PubMed and Web of Science databases was conducted from January 2019 to April 2021 us...

Dec 21st, 2022 - The aim of the study was to investigate patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) who visited dental clinics for treatment and to analyse the occurrence of additional COVID-19-confirmed cases according to the type of dental treatment and use of personal protective equipment (PPE). Interviews were conducted in November 2021 via telephone, and written questionnaires were administered to d...

Dec 15th, 2022 - The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis discussed their final report highlighting the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, ranging from the need to invest in next-generation vaccines to the importance of tackling misinformation, during a hearing Wednesday. The report, the culmination of 42 hearings and member briefings, 37 analyses, and testimony from dozens of officials,...

Dec 14th, 2022 - At the time of the SARS-CoV-2 emergence, asthma patients were initially considered vulnerable because respiratory viruses, especially influenza, are associated with asthma exacerbations, increased risk of hospitalization and more severe disease course. We aimed to compare the asthma prevalence in patients hospitalized for COVID-19 or influenza and risk factors associated with poor prognosis wit...

Dec 9th, 2022 - With the emergence of SARS-CoV-2, healthcare workers (HCW) have relied on reusable personal protective equipment (PPE), including respirators and face shields (FSs). The effectiveness of decontamination procedures outside experimental settings is unclear. We examined the prevalence of surface contamination on reusable PPE used by HCWs at a hospital incorporating daily centralized decontaminatio...

Dec 1st, 2022 - SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) - The giant Chinese cities of Guangzhou and Chongqing announced an easing of COVID curbs on Wednesday, a day after demonstrators in southern Guangzhou clashed with police amid a string of protests against the world's toughest coronavirus restrictions. The demonstrations, which spread over the weekend to Shanghai, Beijing and elsewhere, have become a show of public def...

Nov 15th, 2022 - To evaluate potential viral contamination on the surfaces of personal protective equipment (PPE) in COVID-19 wards. Face shields, gloves, the chest area of PPE and shoe soles were sampled at different time points. The samples were tested for the presence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) by PCR, and the cycle threshold (CT) values were recorded. The positive rate w...

Sep 4th, 2022 - Though global health care delivery systems have been under inevitable pressure and risks from the ongoing coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, our natural human environment is also increasingly threatened. The reason is that efforts to contain the pandemic have resulted in a vast generation of medical waste from disused personal protective equipment, such as facemasks, face-shields, hand-gl...

Aug 27th, 2022 - Literature is lacking on the safety of storing contaminated PPE in paper bags for reuse, potentially increasing exposure to frontline healthcare workers (HCW) and patients. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of paper bags as a barrier for fomite transmission of SARS-CoV-2 by storing face masks, respirators, and face shields. This quasi-experimental study evaluated the presen...

Aug 1st, 2022 - Face shields were widely used in 2020-2021 as facial personal protective equipment (PPE). Laboratory evidence about how protective face shields might be and whether real world user priorities and usage habits conflicted with best practice for maximum possible protection was lacking - especially in limited resource settings. Relative protective potential of 13 face shield designs were tested in ...

Jul 30th, 2022 - Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged dental professionals to provide appropriate care while using nationally recognized guidelines to minimize disease transmission. The purpose of this study was to investigate the current practices of dental hygienists in Idaho to better understand how their practices have been impacted by COVID-19 in comparison to national guidelines.Methods: Practici...

Jul 20th, 2022 - Face shields (also referred to as visors), goggles and safety glasses have been worn during the COVID-19 pandemic as one measure to control transmission of the virus. However, their effectiveness in controlling facial exposure to cough droplets is not well established and standard tests for evaluating eye protection for this application are limited. A method was developed to evaluate face shiel...

Jun 29th, 2022 - Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has been an unprecedented public health crisis. As hospitals took measures to increase their capacity to manage COVID-19 patients, plastic surgeons have also had to modify their routine to continue serving their vital role within the hospital environment. In an effort to reduce exposure to COVID-19 and conserve hospital resources, many plastic surger...

Jun 29th, 2022 - The development of a vaccine for SARS-CoV-2 is primarily focused on the structure of the spike (S) protein. The heavy glycosylation of S with flexible hinges at the stalk shields from antibody attachment. This study deciphers the flexible nature of hinges responsible for binding the odorant receptor on neurons responsible for the loss of smell in COVID-19 patients. The 3D structure via EPIK in ...

Jun 9th, 2022 - Note that some links may require registration or subscription. There is a "real" risk that monkeypox will establish itself in non-endemic countries if the current global threat is not wrestled under control, said World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD. (NBC News) Scientists are concerned monkeypox could establish itself in wildlife outside of Africa, creating...

Jun 9th, 2022 - Since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic in March 2020, frontline health care workers wear personal protective equipment (PPE, surgical masks, N95 or similar respirators, gloves, goggles, face shields, and gowns). Alcohol-based sanitizers and wipes were recommended. Such measures lead to disruption of the natural skin habitat and skin barrier and various cutaneous reactions. The aim was to assess...

May 26th, 2022 - A small study conducted in Germany takes a step toward quantifying the COVID risk of gyms and fitness clubs. Scientists have known since early in the pandemic that COVID is usually spread in the air by aerosol particles expelled by infected people, and the harder people breathe — as when they exercise — the more particles they expel. But how much more? The study published in the Proceedings of ...