In healthcare environments gloves can be a double edged sword, both protecting and contaminating, reducing exposures and producing exposures, according to infectious disease expert Barry Michaels. In a recent blog on DebGroup.com, he explores what he calls glove risk paradigm in food and healthcare settings.
According to the blog, gloves protect workers from exposures to hazardous chemicals and infections while also protecting patient from potential pathogens on the hands of the wearer. They can in some cases give a false sense of security to the wearer. Michaels calls failure to change gloves at proper frequency a partner in crime to a lack of hand hygiene.
When worn correctly in healthcare environments gloves have consistently helped reduce hospital associated infection rates. Public health experts have debated claims of glove superiority verses hand hygiene since the gloves were invented, Michaels says, but fortunately they are now considered as interdependent components.
Read the blog.
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