Personal Protective Equipment, Diagnostic and Treatments Facilities for COVID-19 Patients. A Cross-Sectional Study in Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador

Abstract

Background: Shortage of Personal Protective Equipment and preparedness to fight back the pandemic have been a common issue in most of the affected countries. The aim was to establish what were the needs of the healthcare professionals, and the technical difficulties they must face, during the first impact of the outbreak. Methods:A cross-sectional web-based survey was conducted involving healthcare workforce in most populous cities from three Latin American countries in April 2020. Findings: 1082 participants were included, of these physicians accounted for 534 (49·4%) and nurses 263 (24·3%). At least 70% reported lack of PPE availability. Most common perceived deficiencies were closed special protection suits 643 (59·4%), N95 masks 600 (55·5%) and face shields 569 (52·6%). Professionals who performed procedures that generated aerosols reported more deficiencies (p<0·05). Professionals working in the emergency department and primary care reported more deficiencies than intensive care units and hospitalization wards (p<0·001). Up to 556 (51·4%) of the participants reported not having sufficient knowledge about how to use personal protective equipment and mentioned not feeling comfortable with these concepts, of these professionals working in public institutions felt less prepared that their peers in private institutions (p<0·001). Interpretation:In Latin America, health professionals may have more difficulty than in other settings, with seven out of ten reporting not having the necessary resources to care for patients with COVID-19. Technical and logistical difficulties should be addressed in the event of a possible future outbreak as they have a negative impact in healthcare workers. Trial Registration: NCT04486404 Funding: None. Declaration of Interests: Authors declare that they have no competing interests. Ethics Approval Statement: The need for ethics approval for this research is not applicable according to participating countries. In Colombia studies that pose a low risk for participants and are performed thru an anonymous survey are deemed of ethics committee according to Resolution 8430. In Ecuador, Catholic University of Santiago of Guayaquil research commission considered unnecessary an ethics committee approval as no patient data or personal data was involved. In Brazil, a similar procedure and regulation excludes the nature of this study from an ethics committee approval. All the data is anonymous, and participants provided online informed consent prior the survey, protocol is also public at ClinicalTrials record: NCT04486404.