The Flu Pandemic and You by Vincent Lam & Dr. Colin Lee

Author:Vincent Lam & Dr. Colin Lee [Lam, Vincent & Lee, Colin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Doubleday Canada
Published: 2009-11-17T00:00:00+00:00

OTHER ISSUES WORTH DISCUSSING

GLOVES

At this time, no data support the use of gloves as a personal protective measure in routine daily life, and they have some pitfalls. Gloves are an important part of infection control practices in a health care setting, and data do show that gloves reduce the spread of infection in certain situations in health care. Gloves do not replace handwashing. You may wonder how gloves can be important in health care settings, and yet are not advocated in public daily life. It is because the use of gloves in health care is part of a collection of protective measures used in high-risk situations. It may not be useful outside of these specific parameters.

The meaningful use of gloves in health care has some relevant prerequisites. First, they are useful when health care workers interact directly with people who suffer from an infectious illness, and who pose a high risk for transmitting infection. Gloves are recommended when there will be contact with blood, mucous membranes, non-intact or cut skin, vomit, or feces. In this context, the potential threat is more clearly identified than in general daily life, when one cannot know when one might encounter an asymptomatic but infectious person or touch a contaminated object. To prevent influenza droplet transmission in any setting, gloves are not necessary, but handwashing is essential.

Second, in a health care setting, gloves are part of infection control measures for a specific physical encounter between a health care provider and a potentially infectious patient. The nurse or doctor, before caring for a potentially infectious patient, not only dons gloves but may put on a mask, possibly a gown, and goggles. All these barriers are used for one specific patient interaction and then are discarded or sterilized. This kind of focused attention to a particular source of risk using a variety of infection control tools can be achieved as a disciplined practice in health care situations but is not possible in routine daily life. One cannot go through the day with a full complement of protective equipment that one will change each time one walks into a new room or handles another object.

Third, and most important, in health care, gloves are not considered to be a substitute for the essential activity of handwashing, which is still the cornerstone of infection control. There is a danger that by using gloves in routine daily life, a person might acquire a false sense of security and employ less optimal handwashing. Finally, if the gloves become contaminated and are still being used (remember, they are meant to be single-use and disposable), you could be contaminated by the gloves themselves, while you are under the dangerous and mistaken impression that the gloves are providing protection.

If you are going to use gloves, they would be most useful while taking care of a bedridden sick person as part of a careful attempt at infection control that includes wearing a mask. Meanwhile, you should increase the care with which you wash your hands, and not diminish it because you are using gloves.

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