Viral outbreak wasn't high on my list of things to prep for. Pretty sure I used to have a box of rubber gloves around but dammed if I know where I got it lol. I'm optimistic that now that Ebola has reached our shores the "miracle drugs" will start jumping out of the woodwork but I'm feeling cautious enough to prep a little. Where do you buy those dang gloves?
Pharmacies may carry them...at minimum, they will have little packets with a pair or two.
If you are looking for boxes, if they don't have them in the long term care section(where they would be selling commode chairs and walkers and such), try any place that sells orthopedic equipment like wheelchairs and bathtub stools.
If that is a no go...I'm sure Amazon and Ebay would be full of listings by this point.
Thanks.
You can also get thicker gloves i.e. Nitrile ones at any hardware store. I got a box of 100 on amazon for pretty cheap
HopeImReady
"The thing about smart mother f*ckers, is that they sometimes sound like crazy mother f*ckers to dumb mother f*ckers." -Abraham .”
Our Wholesale Club has boxes of latex free, single use gloves, by the box of 100. They are really inexpensive there, The box says non sterile, so maybe they aren't such a good bargain. Any thoughts on this? Maybe a pharmacy is the way to go! I need to pick up a box of masks next time we are in town.
Walmart will have Nitrile gloves by box of 100 or so, often in the cleaning products/garbage bags aisles. You may also find them in the tool/oil section. Not hospital or ambulance grade per-se, but would protect you for the casual need of "just - in - case".
The box says non sterile, so maybe they aren't such a good bargain. Any thoughts on this?
They're fine.
They're not aseptic, but any box of gloves you see hanging on a wall dispenser at a lab of any level, dentist, or dr's office are non-sterile. Non-sterile gloves are designed to protect the user from what they're touching (chems, bio agents). They can also protect a recipient in the case of open injury and unclean fingernails on the wearer.
You'd want a different set of gloves for surgeries and in the cases of extremely immo-depressed patients, even for administering sub-cu fluids or similar, and for extreme clean-room experiments.
The bigger issue is the "mil" - the thickness - and the practice used for donning and removing gloves.
Some gloves will tear, some are more resilient. I like thicker gloves than most are willing to pay for, even for non-surgical pre-packed pairs.
There is probably a YouTube video, WHO/CDC/medical authority pamphlet or similar that can give you the step-by-step for removing gloves without contaminating yourself.
There are also protocols for order/holding positions when removing masks and gowns, and when you do each to avoid contamination.
Wearing just gloves, you have to stay super aware of what you touched, or you might as well not be wearing them (not you-you, humans-in-general-you) which is one of the biggest lacks. It happens all the time, in all kinds of ways.
-You wear gloves, but blow your nose on tissue and then wipe side to side.
In a patient setting, you replace your gloves, no big. But in a protective setting, depending on if you moved your fingers, the side-to-side swipe just exposed your mucous membranes to whatever your gloves have touched recently.
In a totally different scenario, you're wearing gloves, but bumping along at your elbow coming into almost as much contact with the world as money is a purse that hit the table and counter, which does not get wiped off before a plate hits it, which gets picked up and transferred to a different hand, and the first hand grabs a pickle or rubs an eye.
Wearing gloves doesn't help if you use those gloves to open a bottle of water, and only helps with half the exposure potential if the water bottle is the kind you just flip or bite to drink out of (no covering at all from surfaces)
There are ways to minimize exposure to self when there's a need for gloves in all kinds of situations:
-Bathroom visits
-Opening cough drops/gum
-Chapstick (reaching in pocket in gloves, reaching back in later without them; pockets tend to hold moisture, which keeps germs viable longer than if they dried out)
Just reducing the surfaces you come into contact with is great.
I'm not down on gloves at all. Even improperly used, they can help reduce contacts. Gloves and masks together is great. I'd like to see more Westerners with the courtesy of the Japanese city folk who wear masks out when they've got the sniffles or a cough.
But if it's a threat gets close enough to rate real concern and you can't stay locked at home, know the ways to minimize exposure ahead of time.
Superstore also carries boxes of 100's gloves.
I work with oils and sewage for a living and the only glove that I trust not to break is Grease Monkey brand. Be sure to try them on before you buy as I grabbed a box of larges and as they don't really stretch, they were too small. I use the X-large. They are by far the best glove for the price. They are so good I end up reusing them over and over.
