Preferred Product Characteristics for Personal Protective Equipment for the Health Worker on the Frontline Responding to Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers*in Tropical Climates

Overview

Objectives

• To provide a review and summary of current evidence on protective effects of PPE and applicable standards, and to identify the knowledge gaps related to safety, usability, comfort and disposal of PPE.
• To stimulate stakeholders to innovate, collaborate, design, engineer and plan for a PPE system that will increase safety and reduce the heat stress. This can be modified from current PPE already on the market or be a part of a re-imagined PPE system.
• To serve as a guide to develop a PPE system whose parts are intentionally designed with consideration of ergonomics and human factors to fit and allow for harmonized procedures on donning and doffing PPE processes. This should result in a standardized system that will remove confusion and mistakes at the user level.