Selecting medical gloves

Medical gloves are essential personal protective equipment for healthcare workers, because they provide protection from bloodborne pathogens and other infectious, chemical and radioactive hazards. Latex gloves were the traditional choice, but alternatives have been developed because of the health risks associated with latex.

* The most important point for selecting medical gloves is to determine what kind of protection is needed and then make sure the gloves provide it.

* The health effects associated with the gloves must be considered next. There are health risks associated with latex gloves (allergies), powdered gloves (granulomas and adhesions in surgical patients) and vinyl gloves (incineration can release dioxin in the air). Gloves must provide protection without risking the health of workers or patients.

* The gloves must fit properly. Tight gloves cause chafing of the skin and poor fitting gloves make it difficult to perform manual tasks such as gripping or manipulating medical devices.

* Feedback from glove wearers can help you determine if the gloves you’ve selected are right. Check for fit, comfort, resistance to leaking and tearing, skin irritation and the ability to perform job tasks.

Avoiding the bird flu pandemic

The risk of an avian influenza bird flu pandemic in the U.S. is so high now that Pres. Bush pledged $7.1 billion in emergency funding to stockpile vaccines that can treat it and create new vaccines the virus isn’t resistant to.

Two antiviral medicines, Tamiflu and Relenza, may be useful treatments for H5V1, the avian influenza virus strain, but it is generally resistant to two other antiviral medications, amantadine and rimantadine. A worldwide effort to create new vaccines is underway, but it is hampered because it is unknown exactly what form the deadly virus would take.

The H5V1 virus, which began affecting Asian poultry in 2003, rarely affects people, but close contact with infected poultry can cause human infection and there have been isolated reports of human to human transmission. To date, 130 human cases have been reported in five Asian countries, with 67 fatalities.

The reported symptoms of avian influenza have ranged from typical influenza-like symptoms (fever, cough, sore throat) to eye infections, acute respiratory diseases, viral pneumonia and other life threatening illnesses.

At this time, it is uncertain whether the currently circulating H5N1 virus will lead to a global pandemic, but if the virus adapts to allow easy human to human transmission, a pandemic could occur. Three bird related flu pandemics have hit the U.S. in the past century, with 500,000 dying in 1918 during the most severe outbreak.

People can reduce the risk of catching or spreading avian influenza by:
* covering nose and mouth when coughing or sneezing
* disposing of dirty tissues promptly
* avoiding large crowds
* maintaining good basic hygiene, including washing hands frequently to reduce the spread of virus; wash hands before and after handling food