Medical staff also battling PPE-induced skin damage

LUCKNOW: Boils on the body due to excessive sweating inside a PPE kit, bruises on the nose and behind the ear due to noseclamp and strap of the mask: this is the price the medical staff on Covid -19 duty are paying for battling the deadly disease.

What is more, they also develop itchy skin, being ‘locked’ inside the PPE# kits. “It is turning out to be a 6 to 8 hours of torture, with skin getting the first injury,” said Seema Shukla, president of the nursing association of the PGI.

It was a vacuum inside PPE kit and often medical staff wanted to open part of it for ventilation due to excessive sweating, said Pradip Gangwar, president of the King George’s Medical University Employees Association.

Medical staff said a solution could be to reduce working hours for staff deployed in PPE kits.

“At present we have to work for about 6 to 8 hours. If this gets down to 4 or 5 hours the problems will be over. The problem is more for the nurses, majority of whom are females and are

supposed to work for long hours,” said Yadunandini Singh, president of the nurses association of the KGMU.

Pictures of doctors and nursing staff from the Covid -19 wards of different institute went viral showing bruises on the back side of the ear, on the nose and also on foot, which surfaced due to prolonged use of PPE kits.

Experts said that bruises on the skin made a person vulnerable to infection but a little precaution before donning the PPE

kit could avoid such injuries.

“A bruise means an opening in the skin, whether superficial or deep. It makes a person vulnerable to infection and should be avoided,” said Dr Abhishek Shukla, secretary general, Association Of International Doctors.

He said, “Before putting on PPE kits one can put a layer of soft cotton on the parts where chances of bruises are more, such as back side of the ear. This will make sure the cuts do not come up.”