title: Evaluation of gowns and coveralls used by medical personnel working with Ebola patients against simulated bodily fluids using an Elbow Lean Test.
abstract: Gowns and coveralls are important components of protective ensembles used during the management of known or suspected Ebola patients. In this study, an Elbow Lean Test was used to obtain a visual semi-quantitative measure of the resistance of medical protective garments to the penetration of two bodily fluid simulants. Tests were done on swatches of continuous and discontinuous regions of fabrics cut from five gowns and four coveralls at multiple elbow pressure levels (2-44 PSI). Swatches cut from the continuous regions of one gown and two coveralls did not have any strike-through. For discontinuous regions, only the same gown consistently resisted fluid strike-through. As hypothesized, with the exception of one garment, fluid strike-through increased with higher applied elbow pressure, was higher for lower fluid surface tension, and was higher for the discontinuous regions of the protective garments.
authors.affiliation: a AECOM , Aiken , South Carolina.
authors.forename: Peter A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Jaques
authors.affiliation: b Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) , National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory , Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Pengfei
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: b Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) , National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory , Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Selcen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kilinc-Balci
authors.affiliation: b Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) , National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory , Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Lee
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Portnoff
authors.affiliation: a AECOM , Aiken , South Carolina.
authors.forename: Robyn
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Weible
authors.affiliation: a AECOM , Aiken , South Carolina.
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Horvatin
authors.affiliation: b Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) , National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory , Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Amanda
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Strauch
authors.affiliation: b Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) , National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory , Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Ronald
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Shaffer
mesh_terms: D001769:Blood; D012634:Bodily Secretions; D004869:Equipment Safety; D019142:Hemorrhagic Fever, Ebola; D006801:Humans; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000517:prevention & control*; D011481:Protective Clothing / Q000592:standards*; D013500:Surface Tension; D013784:Textiles / Q000592:standards
keywords: Ebola; Elbow Lean Test; medical garment; strike-through; synthetic blood