Today’s announcement by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that it is modifying its guidance regarding measures that should be taken by healthcare workers who are in contact with either confirmed or suspected cases of H1N1 influenza was met with concern by the scientific community that had submitted its recommendations to CDC.
The CDC emphasizes a multipronged approach to protecting healthcare workers from H1N1, including priority use of N95 fit-tested respirators. The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) had urged the CDC, based on clinical experience and scientific evidence, to remove the use of N95 respirators from its recommendations for routine care in favor of the first-line use of surgical masks, as one component of a cadre of prevention measures. Instead, N95 respirators should be reserved for procedures associated with a higher risk of aerosolization of the virus.
“Our position was and continues to be that N95s are neither necessary nor practical in protecting healthcare workers and patients against H1N1,” says Mark Rupp, MD, of the University of Nebraska Medical Center and president of SHEA. “The best science available leaves no doubt that the best way to protect people is by vaccinating them.”
