Special gear to protect police from disease

Press, 14 March 1985, Page 23

Special gear to protect police from disease

PA Wellington Full protective clothing packs, designed to be burnt after use, are being issued to police liable to be in contact with sufferers or carriers of A.I.D.S. and other infectious diseases. Each pack contains an “isolation” gown, a surgical mask, surgical gloves, a cap, and polythene apron and overboots. Packs of rubber gloves, and resuscitation tubes, will also be distributed to the police throughout New Zealand at a cost of $41,400. The head of police train-

ing and personnel, Assistant Commissioner Graeme Dallow, has said that in view of concern shown by police members, the equipment, with detailed hygiene instructions, was being issued to all front-line staff. Officers . are worried about the possibility of catching the deadly disease, acquired immune deficiency syndrome (A.1.D.5.). However, Mr Dallow said that the disease hepatitis B actually posed a greater risk to the police, and that police administrators were looking at the possibility of

inoculating officers as a preventive measure. One Auckland police officer spent several months off work in 1983 after giving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to a hepatitis B sufferer in a police cell. After use, the clothing packs would be put into sealed bags, and their incineration would have to be certified. If “infectious” people were held in police cells or other areas of police stations, the rooms would have to be cleaned thoroughly before further use.