Medical

The Covid-19 pandemic has led to a world-wide shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE). optrel is determined to help and has decided to provide emergency aid by shifting its production focus towards the manufacture of respiratory protection products for health workers.

optrel AG is a leading manufacturer of personal protective equipment and produces high quality eye, respiratory and head protection products for professional industrial applications.

The requirements concerning protection measures, comfort and productivity in industrial settings often by far exceed those of the healthcare industry. The current dire state of emergency has given more reason than ever to rely on effective PPE.

Currently, improved protection is particularly essential in the field of medicine. It has become a matter of life and death to protect health workers from droplet transmissions of the infectious viral disease. Many infectious pathogens – as well as the SARS-CoV-2 – manifest through the spread of respiratory secretions. Infectious drops are released by sneezing, coughing, speaking or singing and can be transmitted directly from one person to another or stick to surfaces.

Furthermore, droplets are spread through aerosolgenerating examinations and treatment methods. Specifically, during dental activities, sputum induction, bronchoscopy, medical intubation, ventilation, resuscitation or as an aerosol of technical procedures.

The distance that these droplets need to leave the body depends on their size and severity: droplets with a diameter of more than 5 μm are spread around 1 to 1.5m and sediment within a few seconds. Within this short flight path, they can get directly into the respiratory tract of the recipient.

Besides, there is the further possibility of a smear infection, by which the sedimented pathogen reaches the mucous membranes via touching hands and then touching mouth or eyes.

The water shell of smaller droplets evaporates during sedimentation and the resulting droplet-nuclei (aerosols) can float in the air for an indefinite period of time, i.e. they can consequently be aerogenically distributed. Mould spores and measles or tuberculosis pathogens can accordingly be spread throughout the room