PPE 19
PPE or Personal Protective Equipment is specialist equipment health professionals wear to protect themselves and people from germs. This barrier reduces the chance of spreading infection through touch, being exposed to viruses in the air and stop person to person transmission.
The COVID-19 virus has now been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation. Images of hazmat suits and medical professionals in full-body scrubs and surgical masks are inundating the media and society. The sight of so many people wearing these outfits makes many of us feel anxious and concerned. However, we do recognise that masks and Personal Protective Equipment are effective in helping to reduce the spread of disease and viruses.
There is presently a global face mask shortage due to an unprecedented need by the health service workforce. Contributing to the mask shortage has also occurred because a number of people outside the medical profession purchasing PPE masks.
During the seventeenth century the bubonic plague epidemic swept through western Europe. Plague doctors who treated the infected wore Personal Protective Equipment to protect them from infections such as miasma, or “bad air”.
Miasma at this period of time was understood to carry disease’s and viruses. This menacing suit typically consisted of a head-to-toe leather or wax-canvas garment, large crystal glasses; and a long snout or bird beak.
These photographs are my contemporary interpretation of the historical and contemporary fusion of Personal Protective Equipment in these strange and uncertain times.
