In an emergency, skip mouth-to-mouth

Bystanders who want to help a heart attack victim are increasingly being told by 911 dispatchers to skip the mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and concentrate on giving chest compressions until medical help arrives.
[ MSNBC http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4675102/ ]

In the American Red Cross training, the instructor made it painfully clear that we should not do mouth-to-mouth without a special one-way guard to place over the person’s mouth. He said if we were at a mall and someone needed mouth-to-mouth that we should even go out to the car to get the mouth guard to protect ourselves rather than initiate mouth-to-mouth unprotected. This MSNBC article quotes Dr. David Wald as saying that the concern about contracting a disease while giving mouth-to-mouth is “completely unsubstantiated,” but the fear still exists, especially when a stranger is involved. Well, there seems to be some disagreement in how CPR is taught, as well as simple logic that if someone falls down with a stopped heart, and you don’t know their background, the health risk to yourself is significant by applying mouth-to-mouth unprotected. This approach allows for immediate action while looking for ways to protect ones self. Of course, contacting 911 immediately is the first priority.

Another note: this change does not apply to children and certain other cases:

The changes are only for victims over age 18 whose hearts have suddenly stopped. Children and those who have stopped breathing because of such things as drug overdoses, drowning, carbon monoxide poisoning or allergic reactions still require mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.