Designing Affordable and Effective Easy-to-Make Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) During Global Healthcare Crisis: Lessons Learned during COVID-19 Pandemic

Ghairatmal L; Manalai L; Manalai P1

1

Publication Date: 2024/09/04

Abstract: This study was conducted at the onset of the current pandemic. During initial few months of its start, the fear of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (COVID-19) in the United States resulted in acute shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) for first responders and healthcare providers. At the start of the pandemic, manufacturers could not keep up with competing public demand as well as healthcare facilities’ needs. Therefore, alternative PPE-like equipment that was affordable and readily available were needed. Since it was thought that the main mode of transmission of COVID-19 was nasopharyngeal droplet and face tough, in theory any devices that could reduce those two factors, would reduce the risk of transmission. In the current study, the authors used common household items to design face shield with three objectives. Firstly, design effective cheap aesthetically appealing PPE to reasonably protect the persons and reduce the competition against healthcare systems. Secondly to evolve school aged children in scientific exploration while schools were dismissed due to the pandemic indefinitely. Lastly, inspire methodologies that could be helpful in future global crises of sudden onset. We hypothesized that the face shield in this study would reduce both spreading of nasopharyngeal droplets and face touch. With the caveat of having limited resources, face shields were effective in blocking macroscopic fluorescent droplet (100%) from reaching a face. It also contained (100%) of macroscopic fluorescent droplets within the shield when a person wearing the shield coughed. The face shields also significantly reduced the amount of time in seconds individuals touched their faces (n=6, p=0.01). The youth in the study demonstrated compassion, dedication, and contributed significantly to the final product that was well received by healthcare providers. We demonstrated that in a short span of time, with limited resources, one could create effective healthcare tools. Designing Affordable and Effective Easy-to-Make Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) During Global Healthcare Crisis: Lessons Learned during COVID-19 Pandemic .

Keywords: No Keywords Available

DOI: https://doi.org/10.38124/ijisrt/IJISRT24JUL1200

PDF: https://ijirst.demo4.arinfotech.co/assets/upload/files/IJISRT24JUL1200.pdf

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