Cross-Infection With Hæmolytic Streptococci in Otorhinological Wards

Measurement of ventilation and airborne infection risk in large naturally ventilated hospital wards

“…The partitions were very effective at containing the source which has the potential to protect patients either side of the partition walls. This concurs with early studies in real hospital environments [45,46], laboratory studies with biological aerosols [38] and recent numerical modelling work [20,47].…”

“…Nevertheless, the findings from such studies have been shown to concur with data from other laboratory studies and from outbreaks. The results in this study agree with other studies in more controlled laboratory environments and computational simulations that show the benefits of using partitions between beds to restrict airborne pathogen movement [18,20,38,40,[45][46][47]. In terms of outbreaks, Gustavson's study [50] shows that tracer gas concentrations measured in a children's ward correlated to varicella transmission, while analysis of the 2003 SAR's outbreak in Hong Kong showed that actual transmission patterns compared well to simulations of both indoor [51] and outdoor [52] airflow paths.…”

Bioaerosol deposition in single and two-bed hospital rooms: A numerical and experimental study

“…Consequently this space exposes a gap for potential passage of pathogens, increasing cross transfer susceptibility. Previous numerical simulations have shown that full height partitions may reduce airborne transmission risk [26] and that those curtaining the length of patient beds are more effective than partially extended ones at preventing infection [40,41]. Physical barriers clearly point to effective intervention measures however further evaluation is needed to explore the most appropriate design and the limitations of such an approach.…”

Sickness Records of Nurses in a General Hospital

“…Okell and Elliott (1936), for example, working in an ear-nose-and-throat hospital, found that nurses were implicated in nearly half the ward outbreaks of haemolytic streptococcal infection, and that the nurses' infections were associated with the same types of haemolytic streptococci as those which cross-infected the patients. While aseptic techniques have been regarded mainly from the angle of protecting the patient from the nurse, their function is dual: they should also serve to protect the nurse from the patient.…”