Want to prevent spread, open the window

Simply opening windows, pathogens in the hospital will be easily controlled, an international research group has said.

According to the team, this inexpensive solution could help prevent the spread of airborne infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, and ironically, traditionally built hospitals with tall walls and Large windows proved to be the best design for that. They are more efficient than modern " absolute isolation " rooms, with expensive designs to pump out polluted air.

"Opening large windows and doors will maximize natural ventilation, so the risk of airborne transmission will be much lower than modern ventilation systems," Rod Escombe, from the Royal University. London and colleagues write.

"Traditional hospitals with high ceilings and large windows provide the best protection. Natural ventilation of that type is low cost and requires no maintenance," the research team wrote.

To find out, Escombe and colleagues examined the air at eight hospitals in Lima, Peru. They found that the treatment areas were built more than 50 years ago, with large windows and high ceilings, better ventilation than modern chambers that use natural ventilation, and are also better than those that are cleared. wind by machine.

A sick room in Lima, Peru. (Photo: LiveScience)

The team surmised that in the ventilated rooms, 39% of susceptible people would become infected after 24 hours of exposure to an untreated TB patient, compared with a 33% infection rate in modern rooms with doors. open books, and 11% of room types built before the 1950s.

This information is very important to the risk of pandemic influenza in the world."The tendency to seal in small spaces is wrong to apply to hospitals," Peter Wilson from London University Hospital said in the study.

Thuan An