ABSTRACT
Public feeding programs continue to be a major source of nutrition to a large part of the population across the world. Any disruption to food factories that support these activities, like the one during the Covid-19 pandemic, can lead to adverse health outcomes, especially among children. Policymakers and other stakeholders must balance the need for continuing food-factory operations while ensuring the health and safety of workers. This has led to several innovations that leverage advanced technologies like AI and IoT to monitor the health and safety of workers and ensure hygienic operations. However, there are practical challenges in its implementation on a large scale.This paper presents an implementation framework to build resilient food factories for public feeding using a combination of intelligent technologies. The framework is a result of piloting the technology solution at a facility run as part of a large mid-day meal feeding program in India. Using existing resources like CCTV cameras and new technologies like AI and IoT, hygiene and safety compliance anomalies can be detected and reported in a resource-efficient manner. It will guide stakeholders running food factories for public feeding as they seek to restart suspended operations and build systems that better adapt to future crises. © 2021 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
Due to the ongoing pandemic, various types of facemasks such as certified N-95, non-woven fiber and fabric/textile masks are being used as an essential protective measure to reduce the risk of spread of the SARS-Cov-2 virus. The aerosols size-dependent filtration efficiency and breathing resistance of these masks were tested before and after sterilization by five different methods for two flow rates (20 and 90?L/min) conditions corresponding to regular breathing rate and moderate/strenuous exertion, in the particle size range 0.3?10?µm. Sterilization techniques used here are autoclaving (30 and 60?minutes), dry air oven heating (30 and 60?minutes), ionizing irradiation (15 and 25 kGy), hot water washing with and without detergent and immersing in a 10% concentration of liquid hydrogen peroxide for 30?minutes. Further, the filtration efficiency of each type of masks is also studied with laboratory generated two-order higher aerosol concertation. The certified mask has the most outstanding filtering efficiency among all the other type of facemasks. The ionizing radiation causes a significant reduction in filtration efficacy, so that it is not recommended for sterilization purpose. The best method to sterilize certified N-95 masks without affecting their performance is by using dry air heating with temperature ranging from 70?80 °C. The performance of the cloth and surgical masks is found to be comparable for both flow conditions. As an affordable sterilization method, hot water washing is recommended, which does not deteriorate the fabric masks efficiency and can be used by the common people. The recommended masks for the general people are textile/fabric masks which serves fit for the purpose than non-woven masks because it can help to reduce non-biodegradable waste (facemask) and prevent respiratory droplet transmission. The non-woven mask can be sterilized with dry heat, hot water wash and autoclave.
ABSTRACT
The notion of hygiene is built on the relationship between cleanliness and the maintenance of good health. Hand washing technique is the rubbing together of all parts of the hands, including all the clefts using soap and water. Hand hygiene is the first step in preventing cross-transmission of microorganisms, which can help in prevention of Hospital Acquired Infections (HAIs). The entire world is in fact, emphasizing the importance of hand wash for the prevention of the COVID-19 pandemic. The germs causing infection in a health care setting can be transmitted through contaminated hands. Health care-associated pathogens can be acquired from any source, mainly from infected or draining wounds, patients' skin, aprons they wear, mattresses they use, bedside furniture and other objects in the immediate environment of the patient. Organisms such as S. aureus, Proteus mirabilis, Klebsiella spp., Acinetobacter spp., Enterococci, play an important role in HAIs. Although hand hygiene procedures are relatively simple, several studies have mentioned that health care workers do not adhere to this properly. Poor hand hygiene compliance has been one of the leading contributory factors to Health Care Acquired Infections (HCAIs). Reasons for low hand hygiene adherence include location of sinks in an inconvenient place, tight work schedule, reluctance as well as lack of role models and not being aware of implementation guidelines. Aim: To analyze the awareness of hand hygiene among health care workers in a hospital set-up for infection control. The goal of the study is to get a better insight of and explore the knowledge and awareness on hand hygiene among health care workers in a tertiary care hospital.
ABSTRACT
The notion of hygiene is built on the relationship between cleanliness and the maintenance of good health.Hand washing technique is the rubbing together of all parts of the hands, including all the clefts using soapand water. Hand hygiene is the first stepin preventing cross-transmission of microorganisms,which can help in prevention of Hospital Acquired Infections (HAIs). The entire world is in fact, emphasizing the importance of hand wash for the prevention of the COVID-19 pandemic. The germs causing infection in a health care setting can be transmitted through contaminated hands. Health care-associated pathogens can be acquired from any source, mainly from infected or draining wounds,patients' skin,aprons they wear, mattresses they use, bedside furniture and other objects in the immediate environment of the patient. Organisms such as S. aureus, Proteus mirabilis, Klebsiella spp., Acinetobacter spp., Enterococci, play an important role in HAIs. Although hand hygiene procedures are relatively simple,several studies have mentioned that health care workers do not adhere to this properly. Poor hand hygiene compliance has been one of the leading contributory factors to Health Care Acquired Infections (HCAIs). Reasons for low hand hygiene adherence include location of sinks in an inconvenient place, tight work schedule, reluctance as well as lack of role models and not being aware of implementation guidelines. Aim: To analyze the awareness of hand hygiene among health care workers in a hospital set-up for infection control. The goal of the study is to get a better insight of and explore the knowledge and awareness on hand hygiene among health care workers in a tertiary care hospital. Objective: To find out the lacunae in hand hygiene and to formulate and take measures to prevent HAIs and multidrug-resistant pathogens. Methods: The study was done through a self-administered questionnaire. Results: A total of 134 people participated which included 75 doctors(56%), 38 nurses (28.4%), 11 lab technicians (8.2%) and others(7.4%). The overall response was good. Both the nurses and doctors had adequate knowledge about hand hygiene. However, the nurses had better knowledge regarding the steps of hand wash (78.9%) and the disposal of biomedical waste(94.7%). The knowledge about hand hygiene and biomedical waste management was better among nurses and lab technicians. Conclusion: Most health professionals had adequate knowledge about hand hygiene. However, they did not have adequate practice of hand washing which can be initiated with effective training. Antimicrobial soap should be available and should be easily accessible for routine hand wash in all patient care areas to improve hand hygiene and to prevent hospital acquired infections. © 2020 This is an Open Access article licensed under a Creative Commons license: Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY). Published by Oriental Scientific Publishing Company.
ABSTRACT
Due to the ongoing pandemic, various types of facemasks such as N-95, surgical mask and cloth masks are being used as an essential protective measure. The filtration efficiency of these masks were tested before and after sterilization by different methods for two flow rates conditions corresponding to normal breathe rate (20 lpm) and during sneezing (90 lpm). Sterilization techniques used here are autoclaving (30 and 60 minutes), dry oven heating (30 and 60 minutes), gamma irradiation (15 and 25 kGy), hot water washing with and without detergent and immersing in 10% concentration of liquid hydrogen peroxide for 30 minutes. As expected, the N-95 is the greatest filtering efficiency among all the other type face masks. The best method to sterilize N-95 masks without affecting its performance is by using dry heat with temperature ranging from 70-80oC. The cloth masks and surgical mask are performed more or less same for both flow conditions. As an affordable sterilization method hot water washing is highly recommended which does not deteriorate the efficiency of the masks and can be used for the general public. The use of double or triple layer cotton cloth masks in the general public serves fit for the purpose than surgical masks. The surgical mask can be sterilized only few times with the help of dry heat, hot water wash and/or autoclave.