Product Categories

• Biochemistry [24]
• Biotechnology [6]
• Chemistry [34]
• Consumables [49]
• Engineering [68]
• Environment [6]
• Equipment Rental [1]
• Haematology [4]
• Health [10]
• Health & Safety [35]
• Imaging [18]
• Lab Design & Storage [47]
• Lab Services [29]
• Microbiology [18]
• Pharma [13]
• Recruitment [1]
• Sample Preparation [42]
• Separation Techniques [17]
• Software [43]
• Spectroscopy [12]
• Test Equipment [11]

OTHER CATEGORIES

• Associations [24]

Laboratory News Directory is not responsible for the content of external internet sites

TB gets Ultraviolet blues

Microbiology - Ultraviolet lights could reduce the spread of tuberculosis in hospital wards and waiting rooms by 70%, according to a new study.

The study - published in PLoS Medicine - explored the transmission of tuberculosis from infected patients to guinea pigs and suggests that installing simple ultraviolet C (UVC) lights in hospitals could help reduce the transmission of TB, including drug-resistant strains.

Dr Rod Escombe, the study's principal investigator from the Wellcome Trust Centre for Clinical Tropical Medicine at Imperial College London, said: "When people are crowded together in a hospital waiting room, it may take just one cough to infect several vulnerable patients. Our previous research showed that opening windows in a room is a simple way to reduce the risk of tuberculosis transmission, but this is climate-dependent - you can't open the windows in the intensive care ward of a Siberian hospital for example."

When a tuberculosis patient coughs, bacteria are sprayed into the air in tiny droplets, floating around the room and infecting other patients, visitors and healthcare staff. These bacteria can be killed by hanging a shielded UVC light from the ceiling with a fan to mix the air, say the researchers. UVC light - One of the three types of invisible light rays (together with ultraviolet A and ultraviolet B) given off by the sun - kills tuberculosis bacteria, including drug-resistant strains, by damaging their DNA so they cannot infect people, grow or divide. It is already used at high intensity to disinfect empty ambulances and operating theatres.

Plans are already underway to install upper room UV lights in the chest clinic at St Mary's Hospital, part of the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust - the first hospital to have them in the UK.

The impact of UV lights is greatest when combined with careful management of the air flow on the wards. Dr Cath Noakes from the University of Leeds' Faculty of Engineering said: "The lights must be set high enough to ensure patients and health workers are not overexposed, but if the lights only treat air at that level, there will be little benefit. To be most effective, ventilation systems need to create a constant flow of treated air down to patient level, and potentially infected air up towards the lights."

Delicious    Digg    StumbleUpon    Facebook