Details:

Alternative Title:
Risk Anal
Personal Author:
Fisher, Edward M. ; Noti, John D. ; Lindsley, William G. ; Blachere, Francoise M. ; Shaffer, Ronald E.
Fisher, Edward M. ; Noti, John D. ; Lindsley, William G. ; Blachere, Francoise M. ; Shaffer, Ronald E. Less -
Description:
Facemasks are part of the hierarchy of interventions used to reduce the transmission of respiratory pathogens by providing a barrier. Two types of facemasks used by healthcare workers are N95 filtering facepiece respirators (FFRs) and surgical masks (SMs). These can become contaminated with respiratory pathogens during use, thus serving as potential sources for transmission. However, because of the lack of field studies, the hazard associated with pathogen-exposed facemasks is unknown. A mathematical model was used to calculate the potential influenza contamination of facemasks from aerosol sources in various exposure scenarios. The aerosol model was validated with data from previous laboratory studies using facemasks mounted on headforms in a simulated healthcare room. The model was then used to estimate facemask contamination levels in three scenarios generated with input parameters from the literature. A second model estimated facemask contamination from a cough. It was determined that contamination levels from a single cough (≈19 viruses) were much less than likely levels from aerosols (4,473 viruses on FFRs and 3,476 viruses on SMs). For aerosol contamination, a range of input values from the literature resulted in wide variation in estimated facemask contamination levels (13-202,549 viruses), depending on the values selected. Overall, these models and estimates for facemask contamination levels can be used to inform infection control practice and research related to the development of better facemasks, to characterize airborne contamination levels, and to assist in assessment of risk from reaerosolization and fomite transfer because of handling and reuse of contaminated facemasks.
Subject:
[+]
Aerosols
Cough
Health Personnel
Humans
Infection Control
Influenza, Human
Masks
Models, Biological
N95 Respirators
Respiratory Protective Devices
Risk Assessment

Source:
Risk Anal. 2014; 34(8):1423-1434
Pubmed ID:
24593662
Pubmed Central ID:
PMC4485436
Document Type:
Journal Article
Funding:
CC999999/Intramural CDC HHS/United States
Collection(s):
CDC Public Access
Main Document Checksum:
[+]
urn:sha256:d84c48b4f5603e7b7804d63f6490c782df29d8ce47c1e7fa287edf0a844a540f
File Type:

Supporting Files

• 	nihms698976.nxml	xml
  	nihms698976f1.gif	gif
  	nihms698976f1.jpg	jpeg

More +