Development of positive/negative pressure booth generating airflow for protection of medical staff from contagious respiratory pathogens.
J Thorac Dis
; 12(9): 4633-4642, 2020 Sep.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-819441
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
The pandemic of COVID-19 caused confusion in medical settings because of increased patient load, and caused many infections among medical staff which occurred through exposure to bio-particles discharged from patients. The risk of exposure became maximum at the examination of patients, particularly in the collection of respiratory specimens. Effective interventions to reduce the risk are needed.METHODS:
A one-person booth consisting of curtain walls, frames, and fan-HEPA filter-unit (FFU) was designed. Using the airstream from/to FFU, it has dual functions as a positive/negative pressure machine to prevent pathogens in patient's cough to reach the medical staff inside/outside the booth, respectively. The curtain walls and positioning of the patient and staff were aerodynamically optimized for the best control of the airstream.RESULTS:
The positive pressure booth is to isolate a staff inside to safely deal with a surge in the number of patients in situations like influenza pandemics. The negative pressure booth is to isolate a patient inside to protect a staff outside from dangerous contagious respiratory infectious diseases including COVID-19. A calculated airflow of the positive pressure machine efficiently pushed back bio-particles discharged from a person outside the booth. The bio-particles of a cough from a person inside the negative pressure booth was sucked into the FFU for filtration immediately after the discharge. The booth needed a short front curtain of a stair-cut shape, and a patient and a staff facing each other needed to be positioned at an angle 45° to the airstream for optimization of the airflow.CONCLUSIONS:
The booth named Barriflow® would prevent the bioparticles of a patient's cough to reach the medical staff due to an aerodynamically designed airstream from the FFU and curtains surrounding it. It could be applied to cases of not only COVID-19 or influenza but also of other dangerous, contagious respiratory diseases.
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Type of study:
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Language:
English
Journal:
J Thorac Dis
Year:
2020
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Jtd-20-1607
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