This highlights the elevated importance of gloving as part of the protection process to reduce the risk of viral transmission. viable virus can be detected up to 72, 48, and 24 h after application to these surfaces, respectively). Recent studies on surface persistence of SARS-CoV-2 showed that fomites made of stainless-steel, polymers, and cardboard paper can transmit infection for extended periods (i.e. Fomites play a key role among health care workers that may find themselves exposed to contact with contaminated surfaces from a large number of undiagnosed but infected patients. While populations generally protect themselves from visible droplet transmissions, a fomite-related transmission has been overlooked both in hospitals and communities. fomites) are the main potential disease transmission pathways that introduce pathogens in the respiratory tract of the host. respiratory expelled droplets), as well as indirect physical contact by touching the contaminated surface (e.g. Recently, it was revealed that the filtration efficiency preservation of N95 respirators can be affected by sterilization processes. To address this challenge, triggered by surging demand and supply chain issues and waste disposal concerns, urgent solutions are desired that can include efforts to conserve PPE use through the extended use or safe reuse via effective disinfection protocols. On the other hand, a rapid accumulation of potentially infectious PPE in domestic solid waste streams, landfills, and water bodies is already detected. The PPE shortage can also impact other industries that rely on the use of PPE for their regular operation, such as manufacturing, research laboratories, petrochemical industries, food production, etc. The continuous growth in the number of cases worldwide has induced an unprecedented shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) such as masks, gloves, gowns, and aprons for frontline health care workers and the general public in domestic situations, , ]. On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization designated the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) disease, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a global pandemic. Overall, the physical sterilization treatments including steam, dry heat, and UV allowed the gloves to retain their thermomechanical performance up to ten cycles of sterilization. Subsequent rounds of sterilization caused no significant change in the glass transition temperature ( T g) of either medical gloves however, quats caused a slight reduction in T g due to its plasticizing effect. The exceptions were that the vinyl and nitrile gloves did not tolerate steam/dry heat and UV treatment over 10 cycles due to likely dehydrochlorination and thermal degradation, respectively. Both types of gloves showed deterioration in mechanical and thermal performance with the use of quats as sterilization treatment while no remarkable change in properties was observed up to 20 cycles of disinfection for the other sterilization methods. nitrile and vinyl (polyvinyl chloride) gloves were tested. For this, two commercially available medical-grade gloves, i.e. In this study, we evaluated the potential of reusing gloves after repeated disinfection cycles using six readily available and common sterilization methods: UV, ethanol, heat, steam, bleach, and quaternary ammonium compounds (quats) for the inactivation of SARS-CoV-2. The shortage in the supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) due to the surging demand in conjuncture with the disposal of an unprecedented quantity of contaminated PPE into the landfill led to an interest for alternative platforms for the management of PPE. As severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) transmission by fomites is one of the main concerns of coronavirus disease 2019, the World Health Organization advised on the use of protective gloves for handling contaminated surfaces and fomites.
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