When coronavirus cases started rising rapidly across the world, the demand for medical gloves skyrocketed. That’s because public health experts recommended these gloves for the fight against COVID-19. Unfortunately, the use of surgical gloves might have done more harm than good.

Most people didn’t realise that gloves don’t protect them from catching the virus. They still didn’t understand that gloves work like their bare hands. This false sense of security could have increased the level of COVID-19 cross-contamination.

How Gloves Cause Cross-Contamination

The process of cross-contamination caused by the gloves is pretty simple. A good example is while in the supermarket or grocery buying things. If you touch an item such as a shopping cart or surface that is infecting in COVID-19, the virus will be transferred to the gloves.

If you touch your eyes, nose or mouth with the infected glove, you will expose yourself to the virus. That’s how people wearing gloves find themselves testing positive to COVID-19.

Tips on Avoiding Cross-Contamination While Wearing Medical Gloves

There are simple steps that can help prevent cross-contamination while wearing surgical gloves. These are tips that have been tried and found to work excellently well. They include:

Be Wary of Everything You Touch

One of the most useful tips is being wary of everything you touch. Be very cautious when handling items and surfaces to stop the spread of the COVID-19. If you’re in the grocery store or supermarket, avoid touching items but use eyes. This will help to reduce the chances of getting infected.

When in public, avoid touching places that you come across. Whether it’s a lighting post, bus stop post, or road signpost, don’t touch them as they could be infected. This will help reduce the level of cross-contamination.

Don’t Wear Them More Than Once

One mistake that people make is re-using gloves. Once you put on a new pair of gloves, you cannot re-use them again. Both nitrile and latex surgical gloves are single-use items. If you need more nitrile medical gloves, you can buy nitrile gloves in bulk. When used, the material becomes weak and might not adequately protect you from virus. That’s why public health experts discourage the idea of re-using the gloves.

So, don’t try to use sanitiser or disinfectant wipes so that you can use them again. That’s how you will avoid possibilities of cross-contamination.

Proper Glove Removal

The removal of medical gloves is another point where cross-contamination happens. Most people don’t know how they should remove these gloves to avoid leaving traces of the virus in their hands. For starters, this is how you should remove your gloves to prevent cross-contamination.

Start with grasping the glove on one side at the wrist. Then peel it away from your body inside out. Hold it the removed glove in the hand that still have the glove one. Then, peel off the second glove by inserting your fingers inside the glove at the wrist. Turn it inside out while pulling it away from your body. Leave the first glove inside it. Dispose of the gloves safely and wash your hands or sanitise.

Proper Disposal

Last but not least is proper disposal of the removed gloves. You should always dispose of gloves in a closed lid trash can. This will protect small children and pets from accessing them. But if you have kids that can open the trash can, an outdoor trash bin would be the best option. If you’re using surgeon gloves in public, bringing a disposable bag to place the gloves after use. You can then throw them into the trash bin later. All these disposal precautions help to avoid cross-contamination.