The National Health Service (NHS) staff members are at greater risk due to COVID patients’ coughing, according to a new study, which is why the NHS has been urged to rethink the safety of thousands of frontline health workers.
The study has found that coughing generated at least 10 times more infectious aerosol particles than speaking or breathing, according to The Guardian, which explains why so many NHS staff members have been falling ill during the pandemic.
The new findings have led to fresh demands that frontline workers who are taking care of COVID patients should be provided with the most protective equipment, including FFP3 respirator masks, and that hospital ventilation must be improved.
Frontline health care workers are at greater risk of contracting coronavirus than the general population.
Lead author of the study Dr. James Dodd said, “CPAP is not aerosol-generating – in fact, the aerosols are reduced compared to just normal breathing and speaking. However, cough really is a potent generator of aerosols.”
“[The risk] appears to be far greater than what we would have assumed,” he added.
Dr. Dodd and his team found that coughing generated at least 10 times more air droplets than speaking or breathing.
Prof. Nick Maskell, who co-led the study, said, “We hope that they will look at the policies they currently have and whether they need to be updated.”
Dr. Chaand Nagpaul, Chair of the Council of the British Medical Association (BMA), said, “We know that staff are still getting sick and having to take time off work to isolate and recover, depriving the NHS and its patients of their expertise at a time when all efforts are being put into defeating Covid-19.”
“Current surgical masks are insufficient to prevent aerosol spread, which is why the BMA is calling for greater provision of enhanced FFP2 and FFP3 masks,” he added.
The findings of the study may also boost efforts to force a public inquiry into COVID deaths among NHS staff members.
Dr. Katie Sanderson of Doctors’ Association UK (DAUK) said, “We feel that there would be fewer infections among healthcare workers, and fewer deaths if people had proper masks.”
“Acute medical wards and A&E, which is where most COVID patients are being cared for, have much lower standards of ventilation than intensive care units, and generally people are coughing all the time,” she added. “This issue affects GPs as well because most GP commissioners have refused to let GPs have access to proper masks.” The article was published in The Guardian.
