Negative-pressure plastic isolator for patients with dangerous infections.

Abstract

A negative-pressure plastic isolator is effective for dealing with patients suffering from dangerous infections. So far it has been used to treat seven patients suspected of having infections due to Lassa, Marburg, or Ebola viruses. One patient spent 32 days in the isolator. The isolator has proved comfortable and acceptable to patients, and it gives the nursing and medical attendants a high degree of protection. All routine nursing and medical procedures can be carried out with minimal interference by the physical barrier, though it is not practicable to undertake artificial respiration or haemodialysis.

Animais de Laboratório: criação e experimentação

“…Essa eficiência foi atribuída à eliminação de agentes contaminantes provenientes do ar (airborn) e à manipulação asséptica. Trexler, Emond & Evans (1977) descreveram o uso de isoladores de plástico com pressão negativa para a manutenção de pacientes com suspeitas de infecções de risco como lassa, marburg e vírus ebola. Com esse equipamento, pacientes foram mantidos por 32 dias, assegurando a integridade do ambiente hospitalar e eliminando os riscos para a equipe médica.…”

A Brief History of Biocontainment

“…In 1975, Phillip Trexler, building upon technology developed for the creation of gnotobiotic research animals [26], described a positively pressurized plastic isolator for use in the treatment of leukemia patients [27]. Two years later, he reported on his experience with a negatively pressurized version designed to isolate patients with dangerous infectious diseases [28].…”

“…Shortly thereafter, they commissioned Vickers Medical Limited of England to develop isolators based on Trexler's technology that could be transported aboard a Boeing 707 aircraft and utilized for intra-or international patient transport. The Canadians had an opportunity to employ their air-transportable isolator (ATI) in 1977, when they moved a 6-year-old boy suspected of having Lassa fever from Toronto to their National Defense Medical Center in Ottawa [28]. Meanwhile, there are reports that an ill US Peace Corps worker assumed to have been infected with Ebola virus while working in Zaire was transported from Kinshasa to Johannesburg in 1976 in an ATI provided by the CDC (and presumably procured from Vickers) [30,31].…”

Facing highly infectious diseases: new trends and current concepts

“…Negative-pressure plastic isolators for patients with dangerous infections have been envisaged since the early 1980s. The 'isolator system' was set up in an attempt to treat patients with suspected haemorrhagic fever [43] and some are still in use (see Fusco et al in this issue). Since the SARS epidemic, several other ambulatory concept isolation rooms with HEPA filtration units have become commercially available.…”

“…Negative‐pressure plastic isolators for patients with dangerous infections have been envisaged since the early 1980s. The ‘isolator system’ was set up in an attempt to treat patients with suspected haemorrhagic fever [43] and some are still in use (see Fusco et al. in this issue).…”