Hospital Blues

Isolation wards around the world are essential to protect against the release of highly contagious airborne pathogens such as influenza A (H1N1) or to shield patients with deficient immune systems. Using accurate scale model wards set up in water and blue food dye to demonstrate ‘air disturbance’, researchers can simulate the flow of potentially contaminated air when a health worker moves through the ward door. These movie frames (left to right) show a manikin entering (top two rows) or leaving (bottom two rows) a ward through a single hinged door. Contamination escaping from the ward to the outside space is illustrated in the first and third rows whereas the second and bottom rows show contamination flowing into the ward interior. Researchers compared single and double doors both sliding or with hinges. Future isolation ward designers take note, in these experiments single sliding doors were the most effective at containing contamination.

Written by Julie Webb

Julie Webb

Writer

Julie began her career as a researcher in genetics. In 2000 she won a Wellcome Trust award for her work on a collaborative science drama, staged at the Edinburgh Festival. She now works as a freelance science writer and communicator.

• Julian Tang
• University of Alberta, Canada
• Originally published under a Creative Commons Attribution license
• Published in PLoS ONE 8(6): e66663