University of Louisville launches decontamination program to alleviate mask shortage for health care workers

The University of Louisville is offering a program to decontaminate used N95 respirators, boosting the supply of masks for local health care providers, first responders and community organizations such as nursing homes at no charge. The N95 Decontamination Program, announced April 11 by Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer, will begin next week, sterilizing up to 7,000 N95 masks per day using vaporized hydrogen peroxide (VHP). This process has been validated by Battelle Memorial Institute as a way to allow the masks to be reused safely by health care workers.

The respirators, which protect health care workers from up to 95% of small particles, including viruses, normally are discarded after a single use. However, the critical shortage of N95 masks amid the global COVID-19 pandemic has forced some health care workers to use masks longer than recommended or use other, less effective masks. Given the shortage, the CDC is not objecting to reuse of masks that have been decontaminated under the emergency circumstances, using processes that have been proven to be effective.

So far, more than 30 organizations and facilities in Louisville, southern Indiana, Lexington and northern Kentucky have expressed interest in participating or applied on the project’s website.

Read the full story from University of Louisville here.