A Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Study, June 2012

Background

A major concern among healthcare experts is a projected shortage of N95 filtering facepiece respirators (FFRs) during an influenza pandemic. One option for mitigating an FFR shortage is to decontaminate and reuse the devices. Many parameters must be evaluated to verify the effectiveness of this strategy: biocidal efficacy, filtration performance, pressure drop, fit, and residual toxicity. The focus of this research effort was to evaluate the ability of microwave/steam energy, low-temperature moist heat, and ultraviolet germicidal irradiation at 254 nm to decontaminate H1N1 influenza virus loaded onto FFRs as either aerosols or droplets. Our data indicate that all three decontamination technologies provide > 4-log reduction of viable H1N1 virus –in 93% of our experiments, the virus was removed to levels below the method detection limit. These data are encouraging and may contribute to the evolution of effective strategies for decontamination and reuse of FFRs.

Document Archive

A Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Study: Use of Energetic Methods to Decontaminate Filtering Facepiece Respirators Contaminated with H1N1 Aerosols and Droplets, June 2012 [11 Pages, 1MB]

Follow The Black Vault on Social Media:
Continue scrolling for more...

This post was published on March 19, 2020 1:39 pm

John Greenewald

Recent Posts

The DoD Inspector General’s Evaluation of the DoD’s Actions Regarding Unidentified Aerial Phenomena

This article was originally written in August 2024. However, additional document releases related to these…

July 15, 2025

Do Not Respond: Pentagon Staff Instructed to Ignore The Black Vault’s UAP Inquiry

The Department of Defense (DoD) has released 151 pages of internal records related to the…

July 15, 2025

U.S. Government Confirms Multiple Drone Incursions Over Pantex Nuclear Facility; Newly Released Documents Reveal Previously Unreported Security Events

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has released a series of previously undisclosed documents confirming…

July 12, 2025

Air Force Confirms Drone Swarms Over Wright-Patterson AFB Led to Airspace Shutdown; Videos and Reports Released

Newly released Air Force records confirm that Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB) in Ohio experienced…

July 11, 2025

Navy Withheld Nearly 500 Pages About UAP Video Release Decision, Records Show FOIA Pressure Drove Disclosure

Newly released documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) reveal that the U.S.…

July 9, 2025

CIA Mishandles UFO Files Again: Intelligence on Soviet UFO Reports Lost Forever

The CIA’s history of losing or mismanaging UFO-related records continues with yet another example, this…

July 7, 2025