Figure and Table | A Narrative Review of Personal Protective Equipment Uses in Coronavirus Disease 2019 and Its Disposable Practices

Table 1. Comparison of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Guideline Recommendations by the World Health Organization (WHO), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and European Center for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC).

From: A Narrative Review of Personal Protective Equipment Uses in Coronavirus Disease 2019 and Its Disposable Practices

Setting/time issued	WHO (March 2020)	CDC (May 2020)	ECDC (March 2020)
Contact and droplet precautions	Medical mask	N95 or higher-level respirator	FFP2 or FFP3 respirator
	Eye protection (goggles) or facial protection (face shield)	Eye protection (e.g., goggles, face shield)	Eye protection
	Clean, nonsterile, long-sleeved gown, gloves, and boots	Gloves	Gloves
	Clean, nonsterile, long-sleeved gown, gloves, and boots	Isolation gown	Long-sleeved, water-resistant gown
Airborne precautions for aerosol-generating procedures	NIOSH-certified N95
	EU standard FFP2 /FFP3 or equivalent
	Eye protection (i.e., goggles or a face shield)	N95 or higher-level respirator	FFP3 respirator
	Clean, nonsterile, long-sleeved gown	Eye protection	Eye protection
		Gloves	Gown
	Waterproof apron (if gowns are not fluid-resistant)	Gloves	Gloves
Collecting specimens (aerosol-generating procedures not included)	Medical mask	N95 respirator (or higher-level respirator) or face-mask (if a respirator is not available)	Surgical mask (if available, FFP2 respirator)
	Eye protection	Eye protection	Eye protection
	Gown	Gown	Gown
	Gloves	Gloves	Gloves
			Drive-through or outdoor facilities
			Surgical mask (in addition to gloves, goggles, and gown)
Inpatient care	Medical mask	N95 respirator (or higher-level respirator) or face-mask (if a respirator is not available)	FFP2 respirator
	Eye protection	Eye protection	Goggles or face shield
	Gloves	Gown	Gown or apron
	Gown	Gloves	Gloves

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Table 2. Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Use Practices and Outcomes.

From: A Narrative Review of Personal Protective Equipment Uses in Coronavirus Disease 2019 and Its Disposable Practices

Authors	Country	Findings/outcomes and comments
Kumar J ⁽¹⁹⁾	Pakistan	Health workers had a positive attitude but had moderate-to-poor level of knowledge and practice regarding face masks. Health workers and general public awareness campaigns regarding the proper use of face mask using all social media available resources would help this pandemic.
Lyu W ⁽²⁰⁾	USA	In the USA, states mandating face masks in public produced a more significant decline in daily COVID-19 growth rates than states that did not issue such mandates.
Liu M ⁽²¹⁾	China	Frontline healthcare workers, provided with appropriate PPE for delivering health care to patients with COVID-19 (including aerosol-generating procedures) were found negative for SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acids and specific IgM and IgG antibodies.
Renaud PP ⁽²²⁾	Canada	The knowledge and practice regarding PPE use among healthcare workers were found to be inadequate and improper. Only 50% identified the correct donning and 35% correct doffing. The majority (70%) identified the need to perform hand hygiene before removing face mask and/or eye protection.
Ong JJY ⁽²³⁾	Singapore	The frequency of PPE use for healthcare workers increased during the COVID-19 emergency. The mostly used PPEs were N95 masks for respiratory system protection and goggles for eye protection. The majority of healthcare workers (81%) experienced PPE-associated headaches. The onset of headache was less than 60 min after donning the PPE and resolved within 30 min of PPE doffing.

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