Effectiveness of N95 Respirator Decontamination and Reuse against SARS-CoV-2 Virus

The coronavirus pandemic has created worldwide shortages of N95 respirators. We analyzed 4 decontamination methods for effectiveness in deactivating severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 virus and effect on respirator function. Our results indicate that N95 respirators can be decontaminated and reused, but the integrity of respirator fit and seal must be maintained.

[1]  R. Shaffer,et al.  Evaluation of Five Decontamination Methods for Filtering Facepiece Respirators , 2009, The Annals of occupational hygiene.

[2]  David J. Weber,et al.  Disinfection and Sterilization In Healthcare Facilities , 2004 .

[3]  Brian D Gerber,et al.  A comment on priors for Bayesian occupancy models , 2017, bioRxiv.

[4]  Oon Tek Ng,et al.  Air, Surface Environmental, and Personal Protective Equipment Contamination by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) From a Symptomatic Patient. , 2020, JAMA.

[5]  J. Wander,et al.  Cleaning of filtering facepiece respirators contaminated with mucin and Staphylococcus aureus. , 2014, American journal of infection control.

[6]  Wen-Yinn Lin,et al.  Filter quality of electret masks in filtering 14.6–594 nm aerosol particles: Effects of five decontamination methods , 2017, PloS one.

[7]  Po-Chen Hung,et al.  Relative survival of Bacillus subtilis spores loaded on filtering facepiece respirators after five decontamination methods , 2018, Indoor air.

[8]  R. Shaffer,et al.  A method to determine the available UV‐C dose for the decontamination of filtering facepiece respirators , 2010, Journal of applied microbiology.

[9]  Brian K. Heimbuch,et al.  Ultraviolet germicidal irradiation of influenza-contaminated N95 filtering facepiece respirators , 2018, American Journal of Infection Control.

[10]  V. Munster,et al.  Stability of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) under different environmental conditions. , 2013, Euro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin.

[11]  COVID-19 Decontamination and Reuse of Filtering Facepiece Respirators , 2020 .

[12]  W. Perry.  The Role of the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration , 1997 .

[13]  Megan L Ranney,et al.  Critical Supply Shortages - The Need for Ventilators and Personal Protective Equipment during the Covid-19 Pandemic. , 2020, The New England journal of medicine.

[14]  Dylan H. Morris,et al.  Aerosol and Surface Stability of SARS-CoV-2 as Compared with SARS-CoV-1 , 2020, The New England journal of medicine.

[15]  S. Lindstrom,et al.  First Case of 2019 Novel Coronavirus in the United States , 2020, The New England journal of medicine.

[16]  Chang-Yu Wu,et al.  A pandemic influenza preparedness study: use of energetic methods to decontaminate filtering facepiece respirators contaminated with H1N1 aerosols and droplets. , 2011, American journal of infection control.

[17]  John K Kruschke,et al.  Bayesian data analysis. , 2010, Wiley interdisciplinary reviews. Cognitive science.

[18]  T. Rea,et al.  Epidemiology of Covid-19 in a Long-Term Care Facility in King County, Washington , 2020, The New England journal of medicine.