Caring for the Carers
‘PPE’ is a new acronym that has entered into our vocabulary. Personal Protective Equipment is meant to protect our bodies against harm while we are carrying out some task that could be physically hazardous. We are used to welders’ face shields and anti-flammable gloves, the hard-hats, boots and gloves of construction workers, and of course, the heavy duty helmets, body armour and multi-terrain boots needed for military combat. Even the protective gowns, gloves, masks and head coverings of medical personnel is something that we see when they enter surgery theatres which are designated ‘sterile’ zones.
Today, on our television screens and, for some of us, in our very neighbourhood, we have become used to seeing such medical protective clothing and tools. Ambulance and hospital personnel fully covered from head to toe in such special protective clothing are now the most prominent images daily as we either watch the news on the COVID-19 pandemic or watch disease control teams enter our neighbourhood.
What is most remarkable and ‘urgent’ about PPE today is that it has become a critical item and there is a shortage of it. Even more than its fatality rate, it is the speed and subtlety of the viral transmission that is the most powerful feature of the current pandemic. The speed of the contagion is as fast as humans can travel and as far as they move around. A single carrier of the virus could travel some 4,000 kilometres (from Wuhan) and, after entering Sri Lanka, travel inland, while passing it on unknowingly to dozens of unsuspecting people in a matter of days. And until all those people the initial carrier met with were identified and placed in isolation, those people were also transmitters. It was the same for all those Sri Lankan migrants who came rushing back from the COVID-19 maelstrom that Italy was becoming at the time.
At the frontlines to meet the (still unsuspecting) incoming virus carriers were medical staff at the airport, in the emergency teams testing and treating those suspect and confirmed cases, and in the teams tracing the people with whom the infected persons had made contact. There are further hundreds of personnel who have to tend to those in the quarantine centres. Hundreds of personnel are involved in disinfecting all the places visited or stayed in by the infected and suspect cases. This includes hundreds of vehicle drivers taking the teams right into these infected sites and taking infected people to hospital or quarantine centres.
In all, there are literally thousands of people active alongside COVID-19 infected people and, also working inside COVID-19 affected premises and in COVID-19 virus processing medical facilities. They all need PPE. At a world level, thanks to the elaborate professionalism of the WHO, there are now meticulously defined quality standards for medical PPE. Not only must the materials of the various pieces of equipment be of a fixed durability, but the design of the equipment must meet operational efficiency standards. The PPE standards were refined by WHO in collaboration with manufacturing companies a few years ago to meet the needs of Ebola campaign in Africa.
The ‘Interim Guidance’ on PPE issued by WHO on 6th April, 2020 states that: “PPE includes gloves, medical/surgical face masks, goggles, face shield, and gowns, as well as items for specific procedures such as filtering facepiece respirators (i.e. N95 or FFP2 or FFP3 standard or equivalent) - hereafter referred to as “respirators" – and, aprons.”
Additionally, internationally respected health research centres as well as WHO also specify the required human protection standards in those scientific facilities analysing COVID-19 test samples as well as research laboratories designing vaccines and curative medicines. It is the sheer volume of anti-pandemic activity that needs to be done at speed and constantly that has burdened rich and poor countries alike with the urgent need for PPE.
Health authorities around the world, beginning with China, the first to be struck by the pandemic – at which time its highly contagious nature was unknown – have had to ask their health personnel to courageously work on the disease frontlines from the start. It has been no surprise that medical personnel abroad have been suffering from and dying of COVID-19 ever since its outbreak.
Despite the routine lack of resources due to our economic ‘developing’ status, our medical personnel have shown the world that they are second to none in their professional bravery and resourcefulness in fighting the epidemic. Even as medical personnel in the rich countries – which should have been far better equipped – were actually protesting and even striking work over PPE shortages, our personnel have battled on despite shortcomings here.
The GMOA has been actively alerting the authorities about the need for PPE supplies and have contributed ideas for innovation in equipment design. Our own private sector has also chipped in. The Security Forces and the Police too need to be provided with PPE relevant to their roles in the anti-COVID-19 campaign.
‘PPE’ is a new acronym that has entered into our vocabulary. Personal Protective Equipment is meant to protect our bodies against harm while we are carrying out some task that could be physically hazardous. We are used to welders’ face shields and anti-flammable gloves, the hard-hats, boots and gloves of construction workers, and of course, the heavy duty helmets, body armour and multi-terrain boots needed for military combat. Even the protective gowns, gloves, masks and head coverings of medical personnel is something that we see when they enter surgery theatres which are designated ‘sterile’ zones.
Today, on our television screens and, for some of us, in our very neighbourhood, we have become used to seeing such medical protective clothing and tools. Ambulance and hospital personnel fully covered from head to toe in such special protective clothing are now the most prominent images daily as we either watch the news on the COVID-19 pandemic or watch disease control teams enter our neighbourhood.
What is most remarkable and ‘urgent’ about PPE today is that it has become a critical item and there is a shortage of it. Even more than its fatality rate, it is the speed and subtlety of the viral transmission that is the most powerful feature of the current pandemic. The speed of the contagion is as fast as humans can travel and as far as they move around. A single carrier of the virus could travel some 4,000 kilometres (from Wuhan) and, after entering Sri Lanka, travel inland, while passing it on unknowingly to dozens of unsuspecting people in a matter of days. And until all those people the initial carrier met with were identified and placed in isolation, those people were also transmitters. It was the same for all those Sri Lankan migrants who came rushing back from the COVID-19 maelstrom that Italy was becoming at the time.
At the frontlines to meet the (still unsuspecting) incoming virus carriers were medical staff at the airport, in the emergency teams testing and treating those suspect and confirmed cases, and in the teams tracing the people with whom the infected persons had made contact. There are further hundreds of personnel who have to tend to those in the quarantine centres. Hundreds of personnel are involved in disinfecting all the places visited or stayed in by the infected and suspect cases. This includes hundreds of vehicle drivers taking the teams right into these infected sites and taking infected people to hospital or quarantine centres.
In all, there are literally thousands of people active alongside COVID-19 infected people and, also working inside COVID-19 affected premises and in COVID-19 virus processing medical facilities. They all need PPE. At a world level, thanks to the elaborate professionalism of the WHO, there are now meticulously defined quality standards for medical PPE. Not only must the materials of the various pieces of equipment be of a fixed durability, but the design of the equipment must meet operational efficiency standards. The PPE standards were refined by WHO in collaboration with manufacturing companies a few years ago to meet the needs of Ebola campaign in Africa.
The ‘Interim Guidance’ on PPE issued by WHO on 6th April, 2020 states that: “PPE includes gloves, medical/surgical face masks, goggles, face shield, and gowns, as well as items for specific procedures such as filtering facepiece respirators (i.e. N95 or FFP2 or FFP3 standard or equivalent) - hereafter referred to as “respirators" – and, aprons.”
Additionally, internationally respected health research centres as well as WHO also specify the required human protection standards in those scientific facilities analysing COVID-19 test samples as well as research laboratories designing vaccines and curative medicines. It is the sheer volume of anti-pandemic activity that needs to be done at speed and constantly that has burdened rich and poor countries alike with the urgent need for PPE.
Health authorities around the world, beginning with China, the first to be struck by the pandemic – at which time its highly contagious nature was unknown – have had to ask their health personnel to courageously work on the disease frontlines from the start. It has been no surprise that medical personnel abroad have been suffering from and dying of COVID-19 ever since its outbreak.
Despite the routine lack of resources due to our economic ‘developing’ status, our medical personnel have shown the world that they are second to none in their professional bravery and resourcefulness in fighting the epidemic. Even as medical personnel in the rich countries – which should have been far better equipped – were actually protesting and even striking work over PPE shortages, our personnel have battled on despite shortcomings here.
The GMOA has been actively alerting the authorities about the need for PPE supplies and have contributed ideas for innovation in equipment design. Our own private sector has also chipped in. The Security Forces and the Police too need to be provided with PPE relevant to their roles in the anti-COVID-19 campaign.
