Indian PPEs: A Quality Vs. Quantity Issue?

Brut India

The past few weeks, India has ramped up PPE production from 0 to 2 lakh every day. But the chairman of Preventive Wear Manufacturer Association of India has doubts about their quality. Dr. Sanjiiiv Relhan shared his concerns with Brut.

Transcript

00:00Every tailor in slums is busy making PPEs, but we cannot count them in numbers.

00:26The problem is with quality, because out of these approved manufacturers, most are not

00:32from the domain of medical garment manufacturing and they don't know about the protocol required

00:38like safe removal is the key.

00:41So when we talk about safe removal and safe donning process, we need to come up with a

00:44specific design.

00:46Then this is one aspect which is always required when we go for a barrier item, whether it

00:52is a gown or a coverall, we need to have some breathability, which gives you added comfort.

00:58There are some things which are problematic, like to convince the local authorities that

01:04machine parts like needles and threads and other things are also part of this essential

01:11equipment, but they don't understand, so shortage can be done away immediately.

01:18If you see, the Ministry of Health has recently revised their guidelines, they have come up

01:23with another set of guidelines where they have removed the full component of PPE from

01:303 segments to 2 segments only now.

01:32But the only problem is that they have not defined any gown type or any, like for the

01:38body protection, they have not defined for other workers, like sanitation workers, people

01:42who are working under this triage, quarantine, police personnel, they have only recommended

01:49face mask, shield and shoe cover.

01:52Something like a gown which protects your body is missing.

01:55What we as a country need is, we need 3 categories of PPE basically, 30-35% the PPE recommended

02:05by MHFW for healthcare workers who are going to aerosol procedures.

02:11Then 30-35% coveralls without seam taping for healthcare workers who are just taking

02:18the temperatures and giving medicines to infected patients.

02:23And then the remaining 30-35%, they need only a gown along with the face protection, eye

02:29protection, gloves, only a gown for police personnel, sanitation people, they don't need

02:36a coverall at all.

02:38So if we define it in our national guidelines, it will be easier for state governments to

02:42follow these things.

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