Ebola in Texas.

[cmailliard]

Two infected, two dead in Spain.

To those in the know, is a standard issue M40 gas mask sufficient?

Beyond sufficient. The highest level of protection needed is a fluid resistant N95 Respirator. Your M40 with a fluid resistant P100 filter will be more than necessary.

[mcantar18c]

Well, at least my family is covered on that side of things. I don't know as much about our NBC (CBRN now I guess) gear as I should.

[cmailliard]

Look at your canisters. If they say CBRN or CAP1 or list a bunch of Capitalized Letters OV, CL, FM, AM, P100, etc. then you should be ok.

What you need is the P100, all CBRN Canisters have a P100 filter in them.

[HoneyBadger]

Question related to N-95 masks: This mask does not specifically say that it is "fluid resistant"... but is it?

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0002YKBV2/..._TE_item_image
Description reads: (underlining is my emphasis)

Government-Approved Respirator

This respirator is government approved by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) as an N95 class respirator and is designed for workplace, regulated uses and applications. NIOSH certification means the respirator has passed stringent government performance standards including filtration efficiency testing and provides at least 95% filtration efficiency solid and liquid particles that do not contain oil.

Uses

Use this respirator for particles such as those from grinding, sweeping, sawing, bagging or processing minerals, coal, iron ore, flour, metal, wood, pollen, and certain other substances. And for liquid or non-oil based particles from sprays that do not also emit oil aerosols or vapors.

[hollohas]

Here is a very good paper on ebola and respirators for health care workers. These two doctors offer up an argument on why current recommendations might not be the best. This paper also includes some good information on what is known about the biological decay rates of the virus. They include LOTS of links to research papers if you are interested in reading up on the subject.

http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-persp...otection-ebola

...
Healthcare workers have experienced very high rates of morbidity and mortality in the past and current Ebola virus outbreaks. A facemask, or surgical mask, offers no or very minimal protection from infectious aerosol particles. As our examples illustrate, for a risk group 4 organism like Ebola, the minimum level of protection should be an N95 filtering facepiece respirator.
This type of respirator, however, would only be appropriate only when the likelihood of aerosol exposure is very low. For healthcare workers caring for many patients in an epidemic situation, this type of respirator may not provide an adequate level of protection.
For a risk group 4 organism, any activity that has the potential for aerosolizing liquid body fluids, such as medical or disinfection procedures, should be avoided, if possible. Our risk assessment indicates that a PAPR with a full facepiece (APF = 50) or a hood or helmet (APF = 25) would be a better choice for patient care during epidemic conditions.
We recognize that PAPRs present some logistical and infection-control problems. Batteries require frequent charging (which requires a reliable source of electricity), and the entire ensemble requires careful handling and disinfection between uses. A PAPR is also more expensive to buy and maintain than other types of respirators.
On the other hand, a PAPR with a loose-fitting facepiece (hood or helmet) does not require fit testing.
...

[68Charger]

One more thing for everyone thinking they know what hell they are talking about. DO NOT BUY YOUR N95 RESPIRATOR AT HOME DEPOT OR LOWES.

Flitration is only part of the equation on N95's, when dealing with aerosolized droplets (key word is droplet) your respirator must be fluid resistant. Again an N95 is used when doing patient care procedures or in close proximity to aerosol generation. The general construction N95's are not fluid resistant. You need to look for something called ASTM F2100. For Ebola (again when performing aerosol generating procedures) you need ASTM F2100 Level 3 (160mm Hg) or higher for proper protection. 3M 1860 and 1870 N95 Respirators meet this standard. Most medical N95's meet this standard, construction ones do not. Know the problem and know the solution.

I don't want to sound like a dick here, but there is some pretty shitty information out there. One website says a full face respirator is required, BULLSHIT. The site they pulled that information from says a Respirator is required. The problem is many dumbfucks think a respirator is a gas mask or half mask. An N95 IS a Respirator, this is what the source website was saying, an N95 is needed in late stages of Ebola, a full face respirator with a P100 filter is not. One site said you needed an Organic Vapor cartridge for Ebola.

This is good info- It's all a risk mitigation with cost/benefit... will a construction N95 mask help, is it better than nothing? Sure, but it may perform only 33% on exposure as compared to a ASTM F2100 L3 mask.. but still much better than nothing- depending on how much exposure you have. ANY N95/N100 will leave you open to exposure to eyes from direct fluid contact (a sneeze, aerosolized fluids, etc) thru tear ducts, or from cuts. A full-face respirator (and pressurized suits) is what they use when working with Ebola in the lab- so that is where people infer that information from. Even an N95 still allows up to 5% of air to bypass filtration... where an N100 allows less than 1%.

My point is if you're wearing the best N95/N100 you can find and somebody vomits all over your face, you're going to be infected- but is that a realistic scenario you need to defend against?

And another issue would be protocol- how long do you wear one N95 mask, how do you remove it, dispose of it. Since Ebola can survive for hours under the right conditions you could have live virus on your N95, take it off with your bare hands and sit down to a meal and you're infected. Any of this protection is worthless without following protocol.

[roberth]

This was the screw up in Dallas. EMR systems show specific information to people who need to see it. In Dallas the information did not get shared with everyone who needed the information. I was in a meeting yesterday at one of our hospitals and this was brought up with how to fix it. It has nothing to do with Obamacare, EMR's have been in use for years, they are now required under Obamacare (they used to be optional). The big problem with EMR's is lack of actually communicating, just like Facebook, Twitter have done to masses around the world, EMR's have done the same thing in hospitals. People still need to communicate i.e. talk to each other. This is a people problem not a technology problem.

Thank you.

[sellersm]

QUESTION: When you talk about P100 filters, you mean these? http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...A1GIBKMH0YC48T

[cmailliard]

Question related to N-95 masks: This mask does not specifically say that it is "fluid resistant"... but is it?

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0002YKBV2/..._TE_item_image
Description reads: (underlining is my emphasis)

I would not trust it.

http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3...294936889&rt=d

[cmailliard]

QUESTION: When you talk about P100 filters, you mean these? http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...A1GIBKMH0YC48T

Yes, but make sure it will fit your respirator. 3M, Scott, etc. all have different ways of connecting to the face piece. If you have a 40mm NATO Thread, any 40mm NATO filter or canister will work.