Coronavirus pandemic | AIIMS urges medicos to reuse N95 masks to tackle PPE shortage

The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has issued a directive advising reuse of personal protective equipment (PPE), which has irked doctors and healthcare workers.

Along with the rise in the number of COVID-19 patients, the country is also battling a shortage of protective gear for medicos. To tackle the menace, the AIIMS administration had told doctors to reuse N95 masks at least four times, Business Line reported.

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AIIMS Director Randeep Guleria had approved the release of a circular on April 7 that mandated the reuse of N95 masks at least four times after they are disinfected by individual users. It mentioned that all healthcare workers and technical staff working at hospitals would be given five N-95 masks each.

However, the Resident Doctors Association (RDA) is worried about the directive as it may jeopardise their physical wellbeing. RDA has sought clarity on the issue.

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Shrinivas Rajkumar, General Secretary, AIIMS RDA, pointed out that a doctor from the physiology department and a healthcare worker has already tested positive for COVID-19 and refused to disinfect and reuse masks when there’s a lack of infrastructure.

“Even in the United States, the FDA has approved machines that can process disinfection. The appropriate infrastructure has to be put in place first. It is dangerous to ask individuals to recycle masks without this infrastructure in place. How will the staff handle this? Because the virus can stay on surfaces for many days, there is a risk of exposure to individuals,” he said

Earlier, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had clearly stated that disposable facemasks should be incinerated or buried deep to ensure no one contracts the deadly disease by being exposed to it.

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