Use of Gloves
With regard to hand covering, although wearing gloves was associated with a lower risk of infection with SARS in some studies (70.2% and 67.3% of subjects wearing gloves),7 8 results have been conflicting (47.6% and 37% of subjects wearing gloves).10 14 The difference may be caused by the different proportion of HCWs using gloves. A case-control study included 758 HCWs who cared for SARS patients and found that wearing two layers of gloves (‘double gloving’) had a significantly enhanced protective effect compared with wearing a single layer of gloves. Double gloving serves two roles: firstly, it acts as an additional membrane should there be a breach (Using differently coloured gloves for the outer gloves may allow rapid identification of any breaches in glove integrity). Secondly, it reduces the spread of viral droplets during doffing of PPE.15 However no such additional protective effect was found in wearing double layers of gowns, multi-layered cotton masks, and head and foot coverings.16