Doffing procedures of personal protective equipment evaluated with lipid nanoparticles as viral surrogates: uncovering potential blind spots.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Personal protective equipment (PPE) should effectively protect health care workers (HCWs) when treating infectious patients. However, during doffing contamination from outside of the PPE could be transferred and might cause serious infection. Therefore, complex doffing procedures have been developed, which include disinfection steps and would thereby protect the HCWs even if a contamination event occurred during doffing. However, assessing these complex multi-step procedures regarding risk of contamination and infection is challenging. The use of harmless surrogates with pathogen mimicking properties such as lipid nanoparticles encapsulating DNA (LNPs) could provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of doffing and disinfection procedures. Compared to the state-of-

SUBMITTER: Pfuderer L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12801874 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature