During CPR, the main things to wear are disposable gloves and some form of breathing barrier if you’re giving rescue breaths. For trained healthcare workers, the list expands to include a mask, eye protection, and a gown. But the level of protection you need depends entirely on whether you’re a bystander on the street or a professional in a clinical setting.
The good news: the actual risk of catching an infection during CPR is remarkably low. Only 15 isolated cases of infection transmission from mouth-to-mouth ventilation have been reported since the technique was first used medically in 1744. Still, wearing even basic protective items makes the experience safer and less stressful for the rescuer.
What Bystanders Should Wear
If you witness a cardiac arrest in public, you’re unlikely to have a full kit of protective gear on hand. That’s okay. The 2025 American Heart Association guidelines say it’s reasonable to use personal protective equipment during CPR, but they don’t require it for bystanders, and they don’t want the absence of gear to stop you from acting.
The simplest protection is a pair of disposable gloves. Nitrile or latex gloves keep blood, saliva, and vomit off your hands. Some people carry a pair in their car’s glove box or in a small keychain CPR kit. If you don’t have gloves, you can still perform chest compressions safely, since intact skin on your hands is already a strong barrier against most pathogens.
If you’re trained in rescue breathing and choose to give breaths, a pocket mask or a plastic face shield with a one-way valve sits between your mouth and the patient’s. These devices let air pass to the patient while redirecting exhaled air and fluids away from you. They’re small, inexpensive, and sold in most pharmacies or first-aid sections. Without one, the AHA’s standing recommendation for untrained bystanders is to skip rescue breaths entirely and do hands-only CPR: continuous chest compressions at a rate of 100 to 120 per minute until help arrives.
Why Hands-Only CPR Reduces Your Risk
Hands-only CPR eliminates the single biggest exposure concern: direct mouth-to-mouth contact. Surveys of bystanders have found that fear of disease transmission is one of the most commonly cited reasons people hesitate to start CPR. In one study of actual bystanders at cardiac arrest scenes, only 1.4% said they were reluctant because of mouth-to-mouth contact, and none specifically cited fear of infection. But the concern is widespread enough that it keeps people from helping at all.
By removing the expectation of rescue breaths, hands-only CPR addresses that barrier. For adults in sudden cardiac arrest, compression-only CPR is just as effective in the first several minutes because the blood still contains enough oxygen to sustain the brain and heart if you keep it circulating. You get the benefit of helping without the close respiratory contact that makes rescuers uncomfortable.
What Healthcare Workers Should Wear
The standard is higher for paramedics, nurses, and doctors performing CPR in a clinical or prehospital setting. At minimum, healthcare workers should wear gloves, a fluid-resistant surgical mask, eye protection (goggles or a face shield), and a disposable apron. This combination is sometimes called “level two” PPE, and it covers contact and droplet precautions during direct patient care.
When there’s a suspected respiratory infection, or when the resuscitation involves procedures that generate airborne particles, the recommendation escalates. Chest compressions can force air out of the lungs in small aerosol droplets, and ventilation with a bag-mask device does the same. For these situations, guidelines from the American Heart Association, the Royal College of Physicians, and public health agencies in the UK and Canada all recommend what’s known as “level three” PPE: a fit-tested N95 or equivalent respirator (instead of a surgical mask), a full fluid-resistant gown (instead of an apron), gloves, and eye or full-face protection.
The distinction matters because a standard surgical mask filters large droplets but doesn’t seal tightly enough to block fine aerosol particles. An N95 respirator does, but only if it’s been properly fit-tested to your face. Healthcare workers who wear an N95 that hasn’t been fit-tested lose much of its protective advantage.
How Real Is the Infection Risk?
Lower than most people assume. The risk of HIV transmission during CPR has been estimated at one in a million events in high-prevalence populations, dropping to one in a billion in areas where prevalence is below 1%. The estimated risk of HIV from any contact with infectious bodily fluids through mucous membranes is about 0.63%, and that figure covers far more direct exposures than a typical CPR scenario involves.
Hepatitis B is the pathogen with the most theoretical risk during mouth-to-mouth ventilation. The virus has been detected in the saliva of 76% to 81% of patients with active or chronic hepatitis B. That said, saliva is a far less efficient transmission route than blood, and vaccination against hepatitis B is widely available. If you’re up to date on your hepatitis B vaccine, your risk drops to essentially zero.
Tuberculosis transmission during CPR has been documented exactly once in the medical literature: a healthcare worker who developed a skin infection after performing CPR on a patient with active pulmonary TB.
What to Keep in a CPR Kit
You don’t need much. A basic personal CPR kit fits on a keychain or in a first-aid pouch and typically contains a pocket mask or face shield with a one-way valve, plus one or two pairs of nitrile gloves. If you want to be more prepared, add a few alcohol-based hand wipes for cleaning up afterward.
For workplaces and public spaces with mounted AED (automated external defibrillator) cabinets, most units ship with a small accessory kit that includes gloves, a razor for shaving chest hair before placing pads, and sometimes a face shield. Check your AED cabinet periodically to make sure these supplies haven’t expired or been removed.
The CDC recommends wearing safety glasses or goggles underneath a face shield if you’re concerned about splash exposure, since the curve of a face shield can actually direct fluids from the side into unprotected eyes. For most bystander scenarios this level of protection isn’t practical, but it’s worth knowing if you stock a workplace first-aid station or respond to emergencies as part of your job.