Oxygen Use Can Spread Viruses for yards

[littlebird]

One of the most important lessons we learned from SARS was that the use of oxygen helped scatter the virus in the healthcare setting, and in ambulance settings.

When someone is in Respiratory distress the first thing we do is apply oxygen. Usually with a mask at a high flow rate. When the person exhales, the virus is catapulted out the sides of the oxygen mask in all directions due to the increased oxygen flow. In Canada, oxygen was blamed for spreading the SARS virus to every person in a triage room of a hospital E.R. Both of the ambulance drivers also came down with the virus.

http://www.newscientist.com/article...oxygen-masks-may-have-helped-spread-sars.html

http://www.medindia.net/news/Study-...spiratory-Infections-in-Hospitals-19282-1.htm

Also aerosolized breathing treatments will do the same thing. I know of no company that makes oxygen masks that are filtered, does anyone else? You can rig them using N-95 masks with oxygen tubing threaded through a hole carefully cut into them. This isn't perfect but it's better than nothing. Especially for ambulances. When you have a flu virus being scattered in every direction for yards due to oxygen use, the virus has a much better chance of hitch-hiking its way out of that triage room. You have X-ray techs, lab techs, and dozens of others entering and leaving. It's something we should be thinking about. Influenza spreads more readily than SARS, and anyone who comes into an E.R. in respiratory distress will probably be put on high flow oxygen with a regular non-rebreather mask, and given breathing treatments. SARS thrived and spread in hospital settings for this very reason.

 

[senegal1]

Re: Oxygen Use Can Spread Viruses for yards

One of the most important lessons we learned from SARS was that the use of oxygen helped scatter the virus in the healthcare setting, and in ambulance settings.

When someone is in Respiratory distress the first thing we do is apply oxygen. Usually with a mask at a high flow rate. When the person exhales, the virus is catapulted out the sides of the oxygen mask in all directions due to the increased oxygen flow. In Canada, oxygen was blamed for spreading the SARS virus to every person in a triage room of a hospital E.R. Both of the ambulance drivers also came down with the virus.

http://www.newscientist.com/article...oxygen-masks-may-have-helped-spread-sars.html

http://www.medindia.net/news/Study-...spiratory-Infections-in-Hospitals-19282-1.htm

Also aerosolized breathing treatments will do the same thing. I know of no company that makes oxygen masks that are filtered, does anyone else? You can rig them using N-95 masks with oxygen tubing threaded through a hole carefully cut into them. This isn't perfect but it's better than nothing. Especially for ambulances. When you have a flu virus being scattered in every direction for yards due to oxygen use, the virus has a much better chance of hitch-hiking its way out of that triage room. You have X-ray techs, lab techs, and dozens of others entering and leaving. It's something we should be thinking about. Influenza spreads more readily than SARS, and anyone who comes into an E.R. in respiratory distress will probably be put on high flow oxygen with a regular non-rebreather mask, and given breathing treatments. SARS thrived and spread in hospital settings for this very reason.

Good point. Kick.

 

[tigger2]

Re: Oxygen Use Can Spread Viruses for yards

Littlebird,
You are right. Cross contamination in the medical field happens. Due to the design of some of the equipment, this isn't always easy to prevent. Except for using universal precautions, I don't know of any way to consistently prevent this. It would probably be easier for the medical personnel to use PPE(N-95 masks) to prevent cross contamination.
A lot of the oxygen equipment is design specific. To alter that design would be to alter the device and possibly the function of that device. It would be difficult to filter an O2 device. The exception being an endotracheal tube.

I have seen an aerosol setup that is filtered. It uses the T setup with a mouth piece. These came out when pentamidine was in vogue for treating
HIV patients. They weren't so much for the patient's protection. They were more for the medical personnel's protection from the drug.

Aerogard II? Filtered Hand-Held Nebulizer
http://www.smiths-medical.com/catal...red-nebulizers/aerogard-ii-filtered-hand.html