April 8, 2020

N95 Mask Decontamination using Standard Hospital Sterilization Technologies

Category: Article Summary

Topic: Clinical Characteristics and Health Care Setting

• The response to the COVID19 epidemic is generating severe shortages of N95 respirator masks around the world. Kumar et al tested the ability of 4 different decontamination methods on 4 different N95 masks and observed if repeated cycles of decontamination would preserve their structural and functional integrity.  A standard autoclave treatment was the best with no loss of structural or functional integrity to a minimum of 10 cycles for the 3 pleated mask models. This particular finding may be useful to health institutions globally with access to autoclaves but are experiencing or imminently expecting shortages for N95 masks due to the pandemic.

Kumar et al. (April 7 2020). N95 Mask Decontamination using Standard Hospital Sterilization Technologies. Pre-print downloaded Apr 8 from https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.05.20049346