ROP 2020 April 15th Breaking News: COVID Infection Control

ROP Breaking News: COVID Infection Control

Casey Parker, MD and Heidi James, MD

• Population level - Social Distancing/Quarantine measures
• Previously effective in reducing spread during other epidemics (MERS, SARS)
• Mathematical modelling shows will be effective in the COVID pandemid
• Real world anecdotal evidence shows countries which instituted these measures broadly and earlier have seen less disease spread than others
• Infection Control at Institutional levels
• Cleaning staff are the real heroes
• Studies show the SARS-Cov2 virus spread easily and widely, found in both air and surface samples
• 100% of floor samples were positive; have a pair of designated hospital shoes!
• SARS-CoV2 is an enveloped virus and as such is easily killed by standard cleaning solutions
• Infection control for individuals
• PPE
• Wearing proper PPE is important
• Having a donning/doffing buddy can help reduce errors
• Learning donning/doffing from a live instructor vs video is better (but more challenging currently)
• A post-work decontamination routine is key

References and Resources

Aerosol and Surface Stability of SARS-CoV-2 as Compared with SARS-CoV-1
Van Doremalen N, Bushmaker T, Morris DH, et al. [published online ahead of print, 2020 Mar 17]. N Engl J Med. 2020;NEJMc2004973. PMID: 32182409

Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 in Hospital Wards, Wuhan, China, 2020 
Guo ZD, Wang ZY, Zhang SF, et al. Aerosol and Surface Distribution of Severe Acute [published online ahead of print, 2020 Apr 10]. Emerg Infect Dis. 2020;26(7):10.3201/eid2607.200885. PMID: 32275497

Air, Surface Environmental, and Personal Protective Equipment Contamination by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) From a Symptomatic Patient
Ong SWX, Tan YK, Chia PY, et al. [published online ahead of print, 2020 Mar 4]. JAMA. 2020;e203227. PMID: 32129805

Quarantine alone or in combination with other public health measures to control COVID-19: a rapid review.
Nussbaumer-Streit B, Mayr V, Dobrescu AI, et al. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2020;4:CD013574. Published 2020 Apr 8. PMID: 32267544

Hard-surface disinfectants and hand sanitizers (COVID-19): List of hard-surface disinfectants