An aerosol-generating procedure (AGP) is a medical or health-care procedure that a public health agency such as the World Health Organization or the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has designated as creating an increased risk of transmission of an aerosol borne contagious disease,[1] such as COVID-19.
[2][3][4][5] At times, healthcare workers concerned about their own risk of contracting airborne infections have been denied access to respirators outside the employment of AGPs.
[6] Medical procedures that have been designated as AGPs include positive-pressure mechanical ventilation including BiPAP and continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), high-frequency ventilation, tracheal intubation,[7] airway suction, tracheostomy, chest physiotherapy, nebuliser treatment, sputum induction, bronchoscopy[8] and ultrasonic scaling and root planing.
The COVID-19 pandemic[9][1] has prompted research to measure the aerosols produced by patients during some AGPs including tracheal intubation and extubation,[10][11][12] gastroscopies, colonoscopies and trans-nasal endoscopies.
Conversely, fine and ultrafine aerosols constitute the majority of all detectable viral RNA in COVID-19 positive symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals during breathing, talking, and singing.