U.S. Pandemic Could Severely Strain Face Mask, Other PPE Supply Pipeline

Chettle³ paints a picture for us: “In a severe pandemic, millions of desperately ill people needing hospitalization will quickly overwhelm the healthcare system to the point of collapse. There will be an immediate shortage of hospital beds; critical supplies (surgical gloves, masks, gowns, IV bags, and antibiotics); and trained staff to care for patients. For example, in the U.S., there are about 965,300 staffed hospital beds — not nearly enough. During the peak week of a pandemic, the following numbers of staffed beds and ventilators would be needed in the U.S. for influenza patients alone: 191 percent of current non-ICU beds, 461 percent of ICU beds, 198 percent of all available ventilators. Projections of hospitalizations are only estimates. However, the gap between our current resources and our needs is staggering. These numbers assume that 25 percent to 30 percent of the U.S. population will fall sick and that illnesses will be spaced over eight weeks. It is expected that even in the peak weeks of a pandemic, no more than 10 percent of a community’s population will be ill at any one time.”

Chettle³ adds, “For the healthcare providers who do care for patients with pandemic influenza, the risk of infection is likely to be significantly increased by a lack of PPE. Supply chain problems are expected to develop once a pandemic begins, and most hospitals, with their ‘just-in-time’ delivery of supplies, have not stockpiled PPE. Without N95 masks, goggles, and gloves, will HCWs put themselves at risk taking care of infectious patients?”

The move of face mask manufacturing overseas has weakened the nation’s domestic pipeline and opened the U.S. to unnecessary risk, says Mike Bowen, executive vice president of Prestige Ameritech, a Texas-based company with a history. In 1997, a leading face mask manufacturer, Tecnol Medical Products, Inc. was acquired by Kimberly-Clark Health Care; at the time of the merger, Tecnol had an 87 percent market share, according to Bowen. Prestige Ameritech was started in 2004 by former Tecnol executive Dan Reese; two years later, Reese was joined by Bowen, also from Tecnol. Bowen and Reese realized that when the major mask makers took their manufacturing overseas, the remaining domestic producers of face masks would be sorely pressed to meet the need during a pandemic or bioterrorism event.