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Home / Public Health Action, Volume 11, Number 3

Open Access Sterilization of gowns: making the most of a scarce commodity during the COVID-19 pandemic

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Baylor Clinic in Mbabane, Eswatini, convened a crisis meeting to tackle critical shortages of long-sleeved disposable gowns that resulted from COVID-19 pandemic constraints on available personal protective equipment (PPE). A strategy deemed safe, affordable and sustainable was adopted to autoclave and re-use gowns based on a risk-stratified approach. Key objectives were to ensure essential infection control and prevention (ICP) for medical doctors, nurses, and laboratory teams. Administrative, environmental and personal protective measures for ICP were enhanced through regular staff training. This strategy for gown re-use has been invaluable in motivating responsible stewardship and maximization of available gowns during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; autoclave; disposable long-sleeved gowns

Document Type: Research Article

Affiliations: 1: Baylor College of Medicine Children’s Foundation Eswatini, Mbabane, Eswatini 2: Global TB Program, Department of Pediatrics Baylor College of Medicine, Children’s Hospital, Houston, TX, USA 3: Baylor College of Medicine Children’s Foundation Eswatini, Mbabane, Eswatini, Global TB Program, Department of Pediatrics Baylor College of Medicine, Children’s Hospital, Houston, TX, USA

Publication date: 21 September 2021

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  • Public Health Action (PHA), The Union's quarterly Open Access journal, welcomes the submission of articles on operational research. It publishes high-quality scientific research on health services, providing new knowledge on how to improve access, equity, quality and efficiency of health systems and services.

    The Editors will consider any manuscript reporting original research on quality improvements, cost-benefit analysis, legislation, training and capacity building, with a focus on all relevant areas of public health (e.g. infection control, nutrition, TB, HIV, vaccines, smoking, COVID-19, microbial resistance, outbreaks etc).

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