Want to stop disease from spreading? Open a window.

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Want to stop disease from spreading? Open a window

 

 

 

 

Mon Feb 26, 8:25 PM EThttp://news./s/nm/20070227/hl_nm/hospital_windows_dc & printer=1;_ylt=Aq87mlo5tYHu.AbG.zRPYd4R.3QA

Preventing the spread of disease in

a hospital may be as simple as opening a window, an

international team of researchers reported on Monday.

The low-tech solution could help prevent the spread of

airborne infections such as tuberculosis -- and ironically,

old-fashioned hospitals with high ceilings and big windows may

offer the best design for this, they reported.

They worked better than modern "negative pressure" rooms,

with expensive design aimed at pumping out infected air, the

researchers report in the Public Library of Science journal

PLoS Medicine.

"Opening windows and doors maximizes natural ventilation so

that the risk of airborne contagion is much lower than with

costly, maintenance-requiring mechanical ventilation systems,"

wrote Rod Escombe of Imperial College London and colleagues in

their report.

"Old-fashioned clinical areas with high ceilings and large

windows provide greatest protection. Natural ventilation costs

little and is maintenance free," they added.

For their report, Escombe and colleagues tested the air in

eight hospitals in Lima, Peru.

Wards built more than 50 years ago, with large windows and

high ceilings, had better ventilation than modern rooms that

relied on natural ventilation.

And they were also superior to the mechanically ventilated

rooms, they reported in their study, available online at

http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document &

doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0040068.

Tuberculosis is spread by bacteria that can float in the

air and the researchers calculated what their findings might

mean for the spread of TB.

They estimated that in mechanically ventilated rooms, 39

percent of susceptible people would become infected after 24

hours of exposure to an untreated TB patient. This compared to

a 33 percent infection rate in modern rooms with windows open

and 11 percent in a pre-1950-style room.

"We found that opening windows and doors provided median

ventilation of 28 air changes/hour, more than double that of

mechanically ventilated negative-pressure rooms ventilated at

the 12 air changes an hour recommended for high-risk areas,"

they wrote.

Experts are looking at these factors in trying to prepare

for a pandemic of influenza.

"The current practice of sealing in the local environment

is probably the wrong route for hospital wards," Peter Wilson

of University College London Hospitals added in a commentary on

the study.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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