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According to a recent study, portable air filters and ultraviolet (UV) light sterilization technology can be used to effectively filter COVID-19 particles from the air to prevent spread in hospitals.

Nature recently reported on this research, which has not yet been peer-reviewed. The research shows for the first time how a portable high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter can reduce the detectable airborne COVID-19 virus in a real-world healthcare environment. Hospital spread. The research is currently reported on the preprint server MedRxiv.

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The researchers noted that during the surge in pandemic hospitals, many COVID-19 patients were in a healthcare environment without proper high-frequency air exchange capabilities, and pointed out that previous experiments only studied air filtration in a controlled environment , The ability to remove non-active particles, but has never been studied in the real world.

Dr. Andrew Conway Morris, a clinician scientist in Critical Care Medicine at the University of Cambridge, wrote: “Before we conducted this study, we knew that the HEPA filter can remove small particles, but we don’t know whether this is effective in a portable filter. In the real environment of the COVID-19 ward."

In the three weeks from January to February this year, when the hospital units surged to their maximum capacity, they transformed the two COVID-19 hospital units into general wards and intensive care units (ICU).

In both environments, HEPA filters are installed in fixed locations, taking advantage of their ability to remove smaller particles that are sometimes missed by hospital personal protective equipment.

They collected and compared air samples when the HEPA filter was closed, when it was opened in the second week, and when it was closed again in the last week.

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However, when Morris "seeed the data, we were stunned [the SARS-CoV-2 was completely cleared from the air in the test ward".

Before the air filtration system was activated, there were COVID-19 medium to large-sized particles in the air in the ward, but they could not be detected after the HEPA filtration system was turned on.

The study is most interested in measuring medium to large particles, because smaller particles are the least likely to be produced by the patient and are not clinically relevant.

Even at baseline, evidence of COVID-19 virus particles in the intensive care unit was limited, and after the filtration system was turned on, only one COVID-19 medium-sized air sample was positive.

He added: "It is also worth noting that we found very little SARS-CoV-2 in the air of the ICU, and of course we all wear the highest level of protection."

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The study shows that filtering COVID-19 in the air in the ward may be more important than in the intensive care unit because there are fewer COVID-19 particles in the ICU at baseline, because the PPE in the ICU has more aerosol protection, and Unit patients have less virus replication in the later stages of the disease.

The study has several limitations: During the global pandemic, it was conducted in only two rooms for three weeks, and there was no clear data on the optimal air exchange needed to clear the virus. In addition, because there is a large amount of air in the two rooms studied, and the virus in the sample is very stable, the authors point out that they cannot really explain that the COVID-19 virus is actually spreading.

In any case, Morris wrote, “In general, I think this research is important for infection control. We need urgent research to confirm that air filtration reduces hospital-acquired infections, but from what we found, This seems to be the case."

Do not publish, disseminate, adapt or redistribute this material. ©2021 FOX News Network Co., Ltd. all rights reserved. Quotes are displayed in real time or delayed for at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Supported and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Notices. Mutual fund and ETF data is provided by Refinitiv Lipper.