Monash innovation reduces risk of COVID in healthcare workers

A Monash University study reveals that a simple ventilated headboard hood can stop SARS-CoV-2 from spreading between patients and healthcare workers on hospital wards. The research is the first step towards allowing hospitals to deliver the best possible treatments in the safest possible way.

Led by research fellows Dr Simon Joosten from the Monash School of Clinical Sciences and Dr Shane Landry from the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute, the study tracked the flow of airborne virus particles in a sealed ‘phage dome’ testing room.

According to the research, published in The European Respiratory Journal, when a mask delivering oxygen/ventilation to a patient leaks, it exposes healthcare workers to virus particles. Even low amounts of leak greatly elevated the risk. However, with the use of a ventilated headboard hood, combined with a HEPA air filter in place, the problem was eliminated, which could help healthcare workers stay safe.

“Our study showed that when a mask [is] used to deliver non-invasive ventilation leaks, it can lead to viruses escaping and landing on basically every surface in a room, even up to 3.86 metres away,” Dr Joosten said.

“This has major safety considerations for open wards and could explain the increased risk of infections in healthcare workers.”

“We were really surprised and pleased by just how effective our very cheaply constructed ventilated headboard worked. To test it we released 1 billion (1,000,000,000!) viruses into the hood and not a single one escaped,” Dr Landry said.

With Victoria’s healthcare workers accounting for 10% of second-wave cases, and infections on the rise overseas, researchers are hoping this new evidence will give hospitals around the world a cheap and simple intervention that doesn’t require major infrastructure changes, and will improve quality of care and save lives.

Currently, COVID-19 patients requiring life-saving oxygen/ventilation treatments can only be safely administered this intervention in a negative-pressure isolation room, in order to mitigate aerosol spread risk. Monash Medical Centre is typical of Australian tertiary hospitals in that it has eight such single negative pressure rooms, and therefore the hospital’s capacity to deliver ward-based oxygen/ventilation treatment is limited.

In Australian hospitals with finite negative-pressure-room resources, there is the real risk of these rooms being overwhelmed and unavailable during an outbreak. This results in a reluctance to provide oxygen/ventilation treatments to patients who may otherwise benefit, resulting in inferior care which could lead to death.

Healthcare workers are already at higher risk of infection than the general population. In this context, it’s unsurprising that they are reluctant to place themselves at further risk by treating patients with oxygen/ventilation outside of negative-pressure rooms. Besides the obvious need to provide safe workplaces to all individuals, healthcare workers themselves are a vital healthcare resource, with temporary leave due to infection placing increasing strains on our public health system.

Instrumental to this study was Dr Jeremy Barr, who is the head of the Bacteriophage Biology Research Group at the Monash School of Biological Sciences.

Image caption: A simple ventilated headboard hood can stop the spread of SARS-CoV-2 between patients and healthcare workers in hospital wards. Credit: Monash University