title: Supplemental treatment of air in airborne infection isolation rooms using high-throughput in-room air decontamination units.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Evidence has recently emerged indicating that in addition to large airborne droplets, fine aerosol particles can be an important mode of influenza transmission that may have been hitherto underestimated. Furthermore, recent performance studies evaluating airborne infection isolation (AII) rooms designed to house infectious patients have revealed major discrepancies between what is prescribed and what is actually measured.
  
  
  METHODS
  We conducted an experimental study to investigate the use of high-throughput in-room air decontamination units for supplemental protection against airborne contamination in areas that host infectious patients. The study included both intrinsic performance tests of the air-decontamination unit against biological aerosols of particular epidemiologic interest and field tests in a hospital AII room under different ventilation scenarios.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The unit tested efficiently eradicated airborne H5N2 influenza and Mycobacterium bovis (a 4- to 5-log single-pass reduction) and, when implemented with a room extractor, reduced the peak contamination levels by a factor of 5, with decontamination rates at least 33% faster than those achieved with the extractor alone.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  High-throughput in-room air treatment units can provide supplemental control of airborne pathogen levels in patient isolation rooms.
authors.affiliation: Ecole Normale Supérieure of Lyon, Physics Laboratory CNRS UMR 5672, Lyon, France. vance.beregron@ens-lyon.fr
authors.forename: Vance
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Bergeron
authors.forename: Annie
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chalfine
authors.forename: Benoît
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Misset
authors.forename: Vincent
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Moules
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Laudinet
authors.forename: Jean
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Carlet
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Lina
mesh_terms: D000391:Air Microbiology; D058491:Bacterial Load; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000517:prevention & control; D003666:Decontamination / Q000379:methods*; D004203:Disinfection / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D053125:Influenza A Virus, H5N2 Subtype / Q000187:drug effects / Q000302:isolation & purification; D009163:Mycobacterium bovis / Q000187:drug effects / Q000302:isolation & purification; D010357:Patient Isolators; D019562:Viral Load