Category Archives: Resources

The Latest News about Respiratory Protection

The National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory (NPPTL)For Respirator Users

Key Resources

N95 Filtering Facepiece Respirator Infographics
NIOSH Respiratory Protection Resources for Ebola

An overview of Ebola, the recommended CDC guidelines, and the NIOSH-approved respiratory products meeting the criteria outlined by the CDC.
Respirator Trusted-Source Information

Provides methods to identify NIOSH-approved filtering facepiece respirators and answers to frequently asked questions.

Approved Particulate Filtering Facepiece Respirators (FFRs) with Donning Instructions

Tables listing NIOSH-approved FFRs in the seven classes.

Certified Equipment List (CEL)

A searchable list of commercially-available, respiratory personal protective devices approved by NIOSH to meet the requirements of Title 42, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 84.

Closed-Circuit Escape Respirators Rules and Standards

CCER’s approved under Subpart O (current)

How to Petition NIOSH to Initiate Rulemaking Activity Related to the Approval of Respiratory Protective Devices

And more on https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/npptl/respusers.html

Information provided by Bobbi Jo Hurst, MBA, BSN, RN, COHN-S, SGE

Spring into Action on Safety

Start fresh this spring by making a clean sweep of hazards that could cause injuries and illnesses. The following resources can help you spring into action:

Attend a free webinar, Three Core Elements of Effective Safety and Health Programs, Wednesday, April 25 at 2 pm EDT, to get ideas about showing management leadership, encouraging worker participation, and finding and fixing hazards in your workplace.

Conduct a walk-around in your workplace using the tips in Walk-Arounds for Safety Officers, a new product from OSHA, to guide your efforts to find and fix hazards.

Improve your hazard identification skills by downloading OSHA’s Hazard Identification Training Tool, consulting the National Safety Council’s  7 Common Workplace Safety Hazards, or attending Course #7205, Health Hazard Awareness, at an OSHA Training Institute Education Center

Updated OSHA Outreach Training Webpage

The Directorate of Training and Education is pleased to announce an enhancement to OSHA’s Outreach Training webpage. In addition to a list of approved online providers for 10- and 30- hour training, they have posted a new, searchable Outreach trainer list for classroom instruction. Workers, employers, and the public can use this list to find OSHA authorized Outreach trainers near them. Direct inquiries on where to find classroom and online Outreach training to https://www.osha.gov/dte/outreach/courses.html.

Vital Signs: Containing Unusual Resistance with Early, Aggressive Action

More than 23,000 Americans die each year from infections caused by germs resistant to antibiotics. While antibiotic resistance (AR) threats vary nationwide, AR has been found in every state. And unusual resistance germs, which are resistant to all or most antibiotics tested and are uncommon or carry special resistance genes, are constantly developing and spreading. Lab tests uncovered unusual resistance more than 200 times in 2017 in “nightmare bacteria” alone. With new resources nationwide, early and aggressive action–even when a single case is found–can keep germs with unusual resistance from spreading in healthcare facilities and causing hard-to-treat or even untreatable infections.

For example, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates show that this aggressive approach could prevent 1,600 cases of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) in one state over three years. The incidence of CRE has increased worldwide with great regional variability. Infections caused by these organisms are associated with crude mortality rates of up to 70%. The spread of CRE in healthcare settings is both an important medical problem and a major global public health threat.

CDC’s most recent Vital Signs report highlights the importance of rapid identification of new or rare resistance. This is the critical first step in CDC’s Containment Strategy to stop the spread of AR. Once AR spreads, it is harder to control. Finding and responding to unusual resistance early, before it becomes common, can help stop its spread and protect people.  To stop the spread of threats like these, the CDC Containment Strategy calls for:

  • Rapid identification of unusual resistance.
  • Infection control assessments.
  • Testing (screening) patients without symptoms who may carry and spread the germ.
  • A coordinated response with other healthcare facilities.
  • Continued infection control assessments and screenings until spread is stopped.

Health departments using the approach have conducted infection control assessments and colonization screenings within 48 hours of finding unusual resistance and have reported no further transmission during follow-up over several weeks. New data suggest that the Containment Strategy can prevent thousands of difficult-to-treat or potentially untreatable infections, such as those caused by high-priority threats such as CRE.

The strategy complements other CDC efforts, including improving antibiotic use and preventing new infections, and builds on existing detection and response infrastructure.

 The Federal Government is:

  • Monitoring resistance and sounding the alarm when threats emerge. CDC develops and provides new lab tests, so health departments can quickly identify new threats.
  • Improving identification through CDC’s new AR Lab Network in all 50 states, five large cities, and Puerto Rico, including seven regional labs and a national tuberculosis lab for specialty testing.
  • Supporting prevention experts and programs in every state and providing data and recommendations for local prevention and response.
  • Testing innovative infection control and prevention strategies with healthcare and academic partners.

State and Local Health Departments and Labs can:

  • Make sure all healthcare facilities know what state and local lab support is available and what isolates (pure samples of a germ) to send for testing. Develop a plan to respond rapidly to unusual genes and germs when they first appear.
  • Assess the quality and consistency of infection control in healthcare facilities across the state, especially in facilities with high-risk patients and long stays. Help improve practices.
  • Coordinate with affected healthcare facilities, the new AR Lab Network regional lab, and CDC for every case of unusual resistance. Investigations should include onsite infection control assessments to find spread. Consider colonization screenings. Continue until spread is controlled.
  • Provide timely lab results and recommendations to affected healthcare facilities and providers. If the patient came from or was transferred to another facility, alert that facility.
  • Find resources: www.cdc.gov/hai/outbreaks/mdro

Healthcare Facilities can:

  • Plan for unusual resistance arriving in your facility. Find resources: www.cdc.gov/hai/outbreaks/mdro
  • Leadership: Work with the health department to stop spread of unusual resistance. Review and support infection control in the facility.
  • Clinical labs: Know what isolates to send for testing. Establish protocols that immediately notify the health department, healthcare provider, and infection control staff of unusual resistance. Validate new tests to identify the latest threats. If needed, use isolates from wwwn.cdc.gov/arisolatebank/.
  • Healthcare providers, epidemiologists, and infection control staff: Place patients with unusual resistance on contact precautions, assess and enhance infection control, and work with the health department to screen others. Communicate about status when patients are transferred. Continue infection control assessments and colonization screenings until spread is controlled. Ask about any recent travel or healthcare to identify at-risk patients.

To read more about the Containment Strategy and the full MMWR early release article from April 3, 2018, click here.

New Respiratory Protection Fact Sheets

We are pleased to release three NEW fact sheets that answer some of your most frequently asked questions about respiratory protection.

The fact sheets are available to download on our website and the topics include:

Opioid Epidemic

https://www.nursingworld.org/practice-policy/work-environment/health-safety/opioid-epidemic/

FDA Approves Zika Screening Test for Blood Donations

The FDA approved the first test to screen for the Zika virus in blood donations. It is intended for use by blood collection establishments, not for the individual diagnosis of Zika virus infection. Read the FDA approval announcement for additional information.

Information for Health Professionals

Information for Health Professionals
These pages offer public health and healthcare professionals key information about vaccination, infection control, prevention, treatment and diagnosis of seasonal influenza. Information including recommendations from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) for the prevention and control of seasonal influenza for the 2017-18 influenza season and other resources is also included.

CDC’s seasonal flu vaccination campaign materials are available to assist partners in communicating about the importance of vaccination. This digital toolkit includes details on events/activities, sample social media and newsletter content, graphics, web assets and media prep material. This material is downloadable and shareable, and some of the material is customizable.

You Call the Shots—Ensure Safe Vaccination Practices!

As the 2017 influenza season begins, it is important to remember that you call the shots when it comes to safe vaccination. To promote both safe vaccination, CDC is launching a campaign to educate and remind providers about proper influenza (flu) vaccine administration technique to help avoid shoulder injuries and other adverse events.

Get comprehensive vaccine administration information and watch a short video on the correct technique for intramuscular injection. Healthcare providers can earn free continuing education by completing the new vaccine administration e-Learn.

Shoulder injuries like bursitis and tendinitis resulting from improper injection technique are errors that can easily be avoided. Preliminary data from both the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) and the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) indicate reports of shoulder injury related to vaccine administration have increased in the last several years. These reports occur more commonly among adults than children.
Getting an annual flu vaccination is the best way to prevent the flu. CDC’s influenza website offers a variety of free educational materials on the importance of flu vaccination, aimed at both health care providers and the general public. The materials include links to comprehensive vaccine administration information and a short video on the correct technique for intramuscular injection, as well as a link to our new vaccine administration e-Learn.  Click here to download an infographic on administering flu vaccine to an adult.

Getting an annual flu vaccination is the best way to prevent the flu. CDC’s influenza website offers a variety of free educational materials on the importance of flu vaccination, aimed at both health care providers and the general public.

 

If you have questions or would like more information, please contact nipinfo@cdc.gov.

 

OSHA Fact Sheet on Zika Virus for Laboratory Workers

An OSHA Fact Sheet, Preventing and Managing Laboratory Worker Exposure to Zika Virus, provides guidance on protecting workers in biomedical laboratories from infection by the virus. It includes information on performing risk assessments and standard biosafety practices for laboratory work involving pathogens.