Becker's Clinical Quality & Infection Control

6 INFECTION CONTROL Rubber band seal brings surgical mask protection to N95 levels, study finds By Erica Carbajal S tandard surgical masks don't fully seal around a person's face, allowing for more participle exposure. But simply adding two rubber bands may improve the seal and offer N95 respirator-level protection, according to researchers at Michigan Medicine in Ann Arbor. e findings, published Aug. 24 in PLOS One, offer a potential way to mitigate N95 shortages during periods of high-demand — such as during a pandemic — since surgical masks are more widely available. To con- duct the study, researchers tested the use of modified surgical masks on 40 healthcare workers. e masks were modified by placing one 8-inch rubber band over the crown of the wearer's head and under the bridge of the nose, with a second band placed along the cheeks and under the chin. irty-one of the participants, or 78 percent, had modified masks with a fit test score of greater than 100, indicating the modified sur- gical masks achieved N95-level protection. e average score for an unmodified surgical mask was 3.8, researchers said. "While not sophisticated, it has the potential to save lives and preserve wellness," said Jaimo Ahn, MD, PhD, senior study author and pro- fessor of orthopedic surgery at the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor. "Its effect will last as long as there are respiratory diseases and [personal protective equipment] demand exceeds supply. It is immediately impactful and sustainable, yet simple and cheap." n Healthcare workers who use respirators 40% less likely to get COVID-19, study suggests By Erica Carbajal A study of more than 2,900 healthcare workers in Switzerland found those who reported using respi- rator masks were 40 percent less likely to contract COVID-19 than those wearing surgical masks after being exposed to COVID-19 patients. The findings were published Aug. 15 in JAMA Network Open and involved 2,919 healthcare workers across seven healthcare networks in Switzerland from September 2020 to September 2021. Researchers asked participants which type of mask — surgical, respirator or a mix of both — they normally used during contact with COVID-19 patients, "outside of aerosol-generating procedures." To assess cumulative patient exposure, researchers multiplied par- ticipants' self-reported number of contacts with COVID-19 patients by the mean duration of the contact. A total of 749 participants, or 26 percent, tested positive for COVID-19 during the study period. Among healthcare workers who were exposed to infected patients, the test positivity rate was 21 percent for those who said they only used respirator masks and 35 percent for those who used surgical or mixed masks. "The odds of being SARS-CoV-2-positive were reduced by more than 40 percent in individuals using respirators irrespective of cumulative exposure, even after adjusting for multiple work- and nonwork-related covariables," re- searchers said. It's uncertain whether the risk reduction observed in the study, which took place before omicron was widespread, is applicable amid the spread of newer variants, researchers added. n C. diff rates fell during COVID-19, study finds By Cailey Gleeson T he prevalence of Clostridioides difficile infections decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic, but inpa- tient mortality and treatment costs went up, a study published Aug. 25 in Open Forum Infectious Diseases found. Researchers used the Premier Healthcare Database to compare C. difficile prevalence and inpatient outcomes in the pre-COVID-19 period, April 2019 to March 2020, and COVID-19 period, April 2020 to March 2021, for 25,991 patients. Cases of C. difficile infections declined from 12.2 per 10,000 encounters pre-COVID-19 to 8.9 per 10,000 encounters during the pandemic. Despite the drop, patients did experience an uptick in inpatient mortality during the pandemic to 7.4 percent. Higher median encounter costs were also observed, with an average increase of approximately $2,000. n

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