White House Urged to Amend influenza A (H1N1) Guidance

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http://infectiousdiseasenews.com/article/50386.aspx

SHEA, and these other "expert" organizations remain determined to get rid of the N95 mask as the best protection from swine flu for HCW. This time they wrote to the White House.

I do not have a warm and fuzzy feeling about SHEA and these other organizations. Let them work at the bedside in nothing but a surgical mask. What they do not mention in their letter is that the IOM made the recommendations not based on McIntyre's study since it was not been published yet when the guidance was issued. IOM based it on other evidence.

This seems like a contest of wills, and a turf war. The doctor representing the 3M Company at the recent CIDRAP Conference I attended in Minneapolis, called it "The
Holy War."

I know staff that were infected during the time when my hospital was using surgical masks instead of the N95. They had to use the Tamiflu blanket on the staff of an entire
unit. If it was just a nurse or tech here or there on different floors, they would have said it was community acquired, but they did not say that.

I do not want to go back to that time. Even if I have to buy my own mask I am wearing the N95. I intend to get vaccinated as well ASAP, but will not depend solely on either to protect me. I suspect that the virus may outrun the vax in the future, and as an asthmatic, I do not want to get sick.

Three national health organizations wrote President Barack Obama today, requesting the administration issue an immediate moratorium on federal guidelines that require the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to enforce the use of fit-tested N95 respirators among health care workers treating patients with suspected or confirmed influenza A H1N1.

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The letter, composed by experts from the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA), the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) and the Association of Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC), follows a retraction last week by the Australian researchers who authored a preliminary report suggesting N95 respirators offered significant benefits over surgical masks, after data from another study indicated both offer equal protection from disease transmission.


?During a time of a national emergency, healthcare professionals need clear, practical and evidence-based guidance from the government,? IDSA president Richard Whitley, MD, said in a press release. ?The current guidance is not supported by the best-available science and only serves to create skepticism toward federal public and occupational health-decision making.?

Other concerns expressed in the joint letter included confusion among health care professionals and misallocation of scarce resources.

?The supply of N95 respirators is rapidly being depleted in our healthcare facilities,? APIC 2009 president Christine Nutty, RN, said in the release. ?We are concerned that there won?t be adequate supply to protect health care workers when patients with tuberculosis enter the healthcare system.?

Surgical masks offer several advantages, the letter stated, including being more readily available, more practical to implement, more likely to be worn and LESS COSTLY than N95 respirators. ?Permitting OSHA to continue to enforce a policy that is not grounded in science will force healthcare facilities to waste time and resources working to comply with a flawed requirement when they instead should be working to enact measures that will have a beneficial impact on patient care and worker safety during this national emergency,? they wrote.

 

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Re: White House Urged to Amend influenza A (H1N1) Guidance

Obviously such initiative seems as an "save my back first",
because they fear there will not remain enaugh mask for the infectious ward stafs.

But instead to squeeze more money for all the various health branches,
and provide N95 for all public/private facilities where must be dealt with flu spreaders, they want to make mask reservations.

#1, Quoted:
"“The supply of N95 respirators is rapidly being depleted in our healthcare facilities,” APIC 2009 president Christine Nutty, RN, said in the release. “We are concerned that there won’t be adequate supply to protect health care workers when patients with tuberculosis enter the healthcare system.”"


Masks are supposed to be an protection to ALL infectious spreading illnesses, new pandemic viruses included.

So, 4 years from the 2005, were enaugh time for produce enaugh masks for everywhere, payed and stocked.

If the decisors thinks that masks are unneccesary, their efforts could concentrate to stop or slow the illness spreading, but as we know, such decisions mainly were not taken worldwide from the begining, nor was suggested as neccessary by the WHO/CDC/...

It is tragic that now the reality of the facts (the scientificaly proved shielding power of N95/100 masks versus ordinary surgical) wants to be changed because of previous logistic failures.


Maybe out there will be some other alternative professional infectious societies letters ...


As wroted in #1:

"Let them work at the bedside in nothing but a surgical mask."

"I know staff that were infected during the time when my hospital was using surgical masks instead of the N95. They had to use the Tamiflu blanket on the staff of an entire unit.
If it was just a nurse or tech here or there on different floors, they would have said it was community acquired, but they did not say that."