Backing up our gains
As we eagerly await the start of the most ambitious vaccination campaign in our nation’s history questions remain. Australia has adopted a hybrid approach with half the adult population slated for a highly efficacious vaccine in Pfizer and the other half a moderately efficacious one in Astra Zeneca (AZ). One group can expect a breakthrough rate of mild to moderate COVID-19 infections of 5% while the other will contend with a higher breakthrough infection rate of 40% when the virus starts to re-circulate as we eventually relax our international borders. If we get the more transmissible South African variant, this …
Taking ownership of occupational safety in theatre during COVID-19
By Dr Michelle Ananda-Rajah Intubation is a highly skilled procedure but in the context of COVID-19 it takes nerves of steel. When adjusting a breathing tube down a difficult airway centimetres from the patient’s face, personal safety should be the last thing on your mind. Occupational safety is not an abstract construct for a group of anaesthetists in a Perth hospital who decided, at the start of the pandemic, to take ownership of their respiratory protection. Having dual appointments in major teaching hospitals in Perth and Hong Kong meant that David Kingsbury did not need to look far for best …
Respiratory protection in the mining sector
In the depths of the earth, even today, miners work under harsh conditions. During their 12-hour shifts, they can be exposed to a range of airborne contaminants, including crystalline silica, asbestos, diesel, particulate matter and wielding fumes under hot stifling conditions. Respiratory illnesses attributed to mining include: COPD, silicosis, coal workers pneumoconiosis (CWP), mixed dust pneumoconiosis, metal fume fever and lung cancer. Supporting site management to ensure worker’s exposures are below occupational exposure limits, are occupational hygienists. I spoke to Brett Young, a certified occupational hygienist with over 25 years of regulatory, petroleum and mining experience. He is one of …
A major US hospital that was an early adopter of elastomeric masks
In mid-January 2020, Yale New Haven Hospital, a large Yale university affiliated healthcare system, in Connecticut decided that they would provide N95 respirators for their staff seeing COVID suspected and confirmed patients but knew that they would struggle to meet demand. Their solution was to purchase re-usable elastomeric masks initially buying 1,200 immediately, which has now increased to 9,000 for a workforce of 33,000 spread over 7 hospitals with 4400 beds. A/Prof Martinello who championed this decision (discussed in this NY times article) had previously worked in the US Veterans Affairs system and recalled their stockpile of 130,000 elastomeric masks …