Question

Topic: Challenges and solutions for addressing critical shortage of supply chain for personal and protective equipment (PPE) arising from Coronavirus disease (COVID19) pandemic – Case study from the Republic of Ireland

INSTRUCTION

The article of Rowan & Laffey (2020) was published in Science of Total Environment (Elsevier) in 2020. Please read the article thoroughly.

1. Summarize five (5) important points from the article’s abstract.
   
2. Based on the article, construct your discussion on these sections:
3. 1. Introduction
   2. Bespoke manufacturing of PPE to meet identified shortage in PPE
   3. Challenges and solutions for addressing the reprocessing of single-use PPE

Attachment of the article on this link:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nYKBhgUKx0AF_J5cRQMfMFdy4EiCqWVc/view?usp=sharing

Answer 1

Ans.:

Five important points can be described from the abstract are

(i) COVID-19 is a contagious a disease which causes serious respiratory illness which may lead to death.

(ii) It’s a global pandemic and every country is suffering with COVID-19 virus spread.

(iii) There is no vaccine for COVID-19 yet, in result more its spreading rapidly and causing death however mortality rate is lower than recovery rate.

(iv) Concern over shortage of PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) and its quality since wearing PPE for long hours drains body water and Medical Staff may fall ill.

(v) Prevention of spread of COVID-19 virus is a challenge.

Introduction

Coronaviruses (CoVs) (order Nidovirales, circle of relatives Coronaviridae, subfamily Coronavirinae) are enveloped viruses with a positive experience, single-stranded RNA genome (Schoeman and Fielding, 2019). With genome sizes ranging from 26 to 32 kilobases (kb) in period, CoVs have the biggest genomes for RNA viruses. Coronavirus is one of the fundamental pathogens that generally targets the human respiratory machine (Rothan and Byrareddy, 2020). A worldwide pandemic status has been lately declared by the arena fitness agency (WHO) for COVID19. the primary range of cases had been identified in Wuhan, a huge city of eleven million people in relevant China in December 2019, which have been connected to the Huanan (Southern China) Seafood WholesaleMarket (Rothan and Byrareddy, 2020).

Key strategies to control the velocity and extent of viral spread inside healthcare settings have been encouraged with the aid of countrywide authorities suggestions and theWHO (Swaminathan et al. (2007). those consist of rigorous contamination control practices, prescriptive instructions for using PPE,

and dissemination of antiviral remedy. these authors pronounced that records regarding the desired quantity and charge of use of these treasured assets in an endemic state of affairs is missing, thereby proscribing legitimate exams of the adequacy of cutting-edge stockpiles. This become corroborated

through a previous simulation take a look at performed by means of Mitchell et al. Based on international fitness company definitions and suggestions, the imply number of “near contacts” of the affected person became 12.3 (range 6–17; eighty five% HCWs); suggest “exposures” were 19.3 (variety

15–26). ordinary, 20–25 PPE setswere required per affected person,with variable HCWcompliance for wearing those objects (93% N95masks, 77% robes, eighty three% gloves, and 73% eye safety). these records indicate that many cutting-edge country wide stockpiles of PPE and antiviral medicinal drug are possibly inadequate for a virulent disease.

Stock usage can also be tracked via a new PPE mobile phone app that makes use of (1) backend database to save all data on PPE stock and distribution running on a cloud, along with AWS, (2) webserver as a gateway between the mobile app and the database, together with AWS, and (3) two functions for updating the database with modern day PPE fame along with querying the equal database. Provision has been made for use of clever blockchain machine to update the database, if the device will become too complex for cellular smartphone utilization, along with records immutability.

Bespoke manufacturing of PPE to meet identified shortage in PPE

Wherein feasible, in which there was diagnosed shortages in PPE, bespoke manufacturing befell to make these objects the use of clinical grade materials, such as non-stop positive Airway pressure (CPAP) helmets for use in in depth care. CPAP presents the maximal amount of imply airway strain without intubation and promotes a extra lung-protective air flow sample.

Facial visors were also made the use of 3-D printers for use in nearby hospitals and nursing homes. on the time of writing, it's far unsure as to what if now not all bespoke manufactured PPE in Ireland with a view to be inspected by using HSE before deployment and utilization by way of frontline healthcare people. The fashion via many medical device producers and academic institutions to redeploy understanding and sources to make PPE to address COVID19 crisis is also rising in other global countries.

Challenges and solutions for addressing the reprocessing of single-use PPE

At the moment of writing, there is a dearth in published literature on efficacy of innovations for reprocessing PPE. that is due to reality that PPE are manufactured for unmarried use. Threfore, there's reliance on records generated bymedical devicemanufacturers and associated sterilization industries to help recognize how exceptional to cope with this scarcity of PPE

and the want for reprocessing in a virus. historically, confined expertise sharing occurs in the clinical technology zone due to the want to protect IPR, which is is understandable given nature of commerce and competitiveness. however, there may be an growing fashion by using

leading industries to put up findings that still assists in shaping ISO requirements, recommendations and policies with a focal point on future-proofing, extra aid usage and sustainability (McEvoy and Rowan, 2019; Chen et al., 2019). authentic equipment producers (OEMs) of one-time-use PPE have recently provided new records on feasible techniques for reprocessing those objects given the established want to take into account contingency plans arising from shortages at some point of this pandemic (which include 3M technology of lifestyles, 2020).

PPE used in healthcare consists of gloves, aprons, lengthy sleeved gowns, goggles, fluid-repellent surgicalmasks, eye, nostril and mouth protection, face visors and respirator masks. Healthcare workers should put on defensive garb while there's a hazard of contact with blood, body fluids, secretions and excretions. HCW should pick out the appropriate PPE

based on a danger assessment of the venture to be done. There's particular awareness airborne droplets (splatter) liberated through respiratory or expelled through sneezing of infected COVID19 patients can also tour numerous meters and stay suspended for ca 30min and continue to exist on surfaces for potentially numerous days. surface, or touch floor, disinfection or sterilization of PPE will suffice, as coronavirus does now not penetrate substances. but, finest task to reprocessing on one-time-use PPE relates to ensuring cloth capability post effective

remedies. If one considersmedical system designed for pre-processing, such as endoscope, there is pre-cleaning stage to reduce bioburden in advance of sterilization strategies to ensure efficacy. this is applicable as in contrast to therapeutics (including vaccines and antibiotics) that depend upon a specific mechanistic target for model of movement, sterilization modalities are non-uniquewith reliance upon making sure that tactics run complete cycles for reaching sterility assurance degree (SAL) of products (McEvoy and Rowan, 2019) as an instance, the presence of organic count number might also affect the oxidative nature of the gasoline sterilization system, vaporised hydrogen peroxide (VH2O2). Pre-cleansing presents an trouble in hospitals as there is commensurate want to decontaminate equipment used in this system for

COVID19. Consideration changed into given to use of Actichlor plus as a wash/disinfection

section. To save you the spread of fitness-care–related infections all warmness-sensitive endoscopes (e.g., gastrointestinal endoscopes, bronchoscopes, nasopharygoscopes) need to be properly wiped clean and, at a minimum, subjected to excessive-degree disinfection after every use. high-stage disinfection may be expected to ruin all microorganisms, despite the fact that while high numbers of bacterial spores are gift, a few spores might live on (CDC, 2008).