Researchers at Duke University have found a way to clean N95 respirator masks to allow doctors and medical staff to wear them dozens of times amid severe shortages during the coronavirus pandemic.
The masks have been in such short supply that some physicians were forced to wear used respirators – which are typically just one-use – risking infection for themselves and their patients.
But a team at the Duke Regional Biocontainment Laboratory, North Carolina, has discovered a method, using vaporized hydrogen peroxide, to kill microbial contaminants that can stay on the masks for a week after they are worn, allowing them to be reused.
The researchers have shared their findings with hospitals in the hopes of helping to meet the desperate demand.
COVID-19 testing is carried out at Elmhurst Hospital Center, New York. 27 March 2020. The medical staff member wears an N95 respirator mask
Boxes of N95 protective masks for use by medical field personnel are seen at a New York State emergency operations incident command center during the coronavirus outbreak in New Rochelle, New York, U.S., March 17, 2020. The masks have been in extremely short supply
The method, which requires special equipment, has been used in labs for decades to decontaminate equipment. The team can decontaminate 500 masks at once, and each mask can be reused between 30 and 50 times before it needs replacing.
Wayne Thomann, director emeritus of the Duke Occupational & Environmental Safety Office said decontaminating the masks keeps medical staff fighting the coronavirus safer and helps treat patients.
‘The N95 respirator is the most appropriate respiratory protection for patient care personnel attending Covid-19 patients, particularly performing aerosol-producing procedures on those patients,’ he told CNN. ‘Reprocessing helps us ensure they will have the best PPE to protect them.’
Hospitals around the country have been struggling to meet demand for the masks during the pandemic.
Tennessee’s Department of Health is even advisin