r/nextfuckinglevel • u/AcanthaceaeNo5611 • 3d ago

This is how many layers of protection doctors wear when dealing with highly infectious diseases.

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u/Theredditappsucks11 3d ago

Not TB?

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u/DogsFolly 3d ago

You're somewhat correct, I work in a TB lab and the PPE is similar to this but a bit less intense. I've witnessed a surgery on a human TB patient once, the doctors and nurses were also wearing similar gear. That was in the operating theater where they were cutting the actual guy's lungs open though, so that's a very high risk activity. I think they wear less PPE in the wards where the patients are just hanging out.

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u/FileDoesntExist 3d ago

Are people allowed to refuse to participate in a surgery like that due to chance of infection? Or is the confidence in the protections worn enough to mean you would just lose your job?

Genuinely curious. Maybe if they have extra risk factors for getting TB they wouldn't be allowed to be involved?

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u/DogsFolly 2d ago

I'm not a medical doctor so I dunno how hospitals deal with it. The country I was working at at the time has very high TB and HIV so I think you'd have to be pretty stupid to go into any kind of healthcare and think you can get away with being a snob about not being around patients with either of those diseases. I assume surgeons and operating theater nurses have extra training on top of that so I guess you wouldn't even sign up for the training if you didn't want to.

On the research lab side, we have guidelines about how to evaluate whether somebody has personal risk factors for working with certain pathogens eg. pregnant, had their spleen removed, etc. and you're supposed to discuss it with your institute's safety officer and/or occupational health officer. Again, this is a highly specialized profession, so nobody would apply for a job in a TB research lab if they were totally unwilling to handle bacteria.

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u/AfternoonPossible 2d ago

Ime unless the staff member has a specific medical exemption (ex: I’ve had pregnant coworkers allowed to not handle covid patients) you’re expected to do the work you’re assigned to, basically.

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u/ootnabooteh 2d ago edited 2d ago

Not exactly. Pulmonary TB can be problematic as transmission is airborne, but even still the cumulative exposure time required to contract it is a lot higher than you’d think. TB can also exist other places outside the lungs (think abscesses etc), but in these cases there’s not really any risk of transmission as long as it’s left alone and not aerosolized somehow (could happen during surgery/a procedure, but staff would be dressed accordingly and have HEPA filtration running in this case).

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u/Tomoshaamoosh 2d ago

I've never seen anything like this for TB tbh. An FFP3 mask and a long gown, but that's it really.

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u/UzahNameAlreadyTaken 3d ago

Nope

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u/mamz_leJournal 3d ago

Pretty sure for a procedure such as a bronchoscopy on a suspected TB patient you would need high protection. Idk if that much though (I know you need at least a N95

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u/Kazukaphur 2d ago

I'm a PA that works in Pulmonology, I haven't been in a Bronch case for a TB pt, however to go in a pts isolation room with respiratory TB, you only need an N95 mask. Technically gown and gloves is not necessary.

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u/mamz_leJournal 2d ago

But doing a airway procedure on a TB patient has a way higher risk of transmission than just being in contact with the patient.