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| Science & Technology |
| The Air In There: Contagious Disease And Open Windows |
| 2007-02-27 |
| 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. Doctors and scientists are looking for "any trick in the book". |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #9 I always find it interesting that our ancestors knew more about a lot of things than we do today. I don't think they knew more, per se. In fact, it could be a little bit of the opposite case: ignorance and bliss. I think we "know" so much now we're becoming ninnies about a lot of things. |
| Posted by: eLarson 2007-02-27 15:27 |
| #8 Our ancestors knew some things about it, learned the hard way, because epidemics of all sorts were common. Yet in 1918, while the medical community knew about pathogens and antiseptics, the public at large was fairly ignorant of it. They just had ideas passed around, from old wives tales to good ideas. If a family could afford it, they had a "sick room", like a walk-in closet, but losing a child to disease was very common. A good example of a bad idea happened in Indiana, where a rumor started that a type of hand knitted woolen sweater was proof against the flu. Its sales jumped, then slumped when the truth came out. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2007-02-27 15:27 |
| #7 USN, Ret, I've gotten sick the last three times I flew. I'd go out for about three days and it would come on when I was boarding the return flight. I sit on the plane with a runny nose and the person sitting next to me wishes her or she wasn't. Sucks. |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2007-02-27 15:23 |
| #6 Same thing will hold true when the promised pandemic arrives: experts will scratch their heads and spend countless hours researching the transmission methods for the disease and how it arrived in (fill in country of choice here). Closed circuit environmental air on aircraft will be the culprit; rather than vent the spent air overboard and constantly take in new air and condition it to suitable levels, all modern aircraft recirculate it, and dump only a small percentage overboard. all in the name of fuel usage. adding air scrubbers to the commercial fleet now would go a long way to minimizing the threat from airliners. |
| Posted by: USN, Ret. 2007-02-27 14:49 |
| #5 I always find it interesting that our ancestors knew more about a lot of things than we do today. Maybe because they actually took note of what was going on around them and then came up with a solution instead of plopping down in front of American Idol and listening to the MSM? |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2007-02-27 13:28 |
| #4 Just wait for the global warming, TW. It's a killer! |
| Posted by: BA 2007-02-27 13:00 |
| #3 Somewhat problematic in the midst of a Buffalo, NY winter, though. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2007-02-27 12:01 |
| #2 My mother knew this back in, like, 1962... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2007-02-27 10:20 |
| #1 Sunlight kills a lot of the little critters too. So fresh air and a little light go a long way. Next up: Chicken soup. |
| Posted by: Excalibur 2007-02-27 10:13 |