PPE decontamination to overcome PPE shortage in rural area during pandemic

Despite remarkable developments in healthcare, the world was not ready to stop the spread of the novel COVID-19 pandemic almost a century after the great influenza pan- demic. The explosive increase in the number of patients stalled the healthcare system, and the first and apparent issue was the shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE). Our group established a system using a hydrogen peroxide vaporization method to decontaminate and reuse N95 respirators for healthcare workers. The system decon- taminated over 12,000 units of PPE to cover institutions in West Texas. This service provided support at the most needed time during the pandemic.& COPY; 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The Healthcare Infection Society.This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Automated summary

This article describes a system using a hydrogen peroxide vaporization method to decontaminate and reuse N95 respirators, providing support for healthcare institutions in West Texas by decontaminating over 12,000 units of PPE.