ESRAC Seminar: ‘Airflow and Role of Surfaces in Hospital-Acquired Infections’

Environment, Exposure Science & Risk Assessment Center (ESRAC) Presents:

"Airflow and the Role of Surfaces in the Transmission of Hospital Acquired Infections"

Marco-Felipe King, PhD | Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Hospital Environment Control, Optimisation and Infection Risk Assessment (HECOIRA), School of Civil Engineering, University of Leeds, United Kingdom

Wednesday, October 23, 2019
1:00 p.m.- 2:00 p.m.
Drachman, Room A-116

About the Speaker: Growing up in Spain, I speak Spanish, German and French. I am a mathematician with 10 years’ experience in fluid dynamics of indoor and outdoor airflow. By combining research into contact transmission, hand hygiene, indoor air quality and environmental cleaning, I study the spread of pathogens on multiple scales in hospitals. I work with the UK National Health Service, industrial partners and international collaborators to carry out experimental and modelling based studies to explore the lifecycle of pathogens from source to susceptible host.

Topic Background: Aerial dispersion of bioaerosols and subsequent contamination of surfaces is recognized as a potential transmission route for health-care acquired infections. Pathogens accrue on health-care workers’ (HCW) hands as they touch surfaces and can subsequently be transmitted to other patients.

Computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations were used to predict bioaerosol deposition onto surfaces from a patient coughing regularly in a)single and b) multi-bed hospital rooms. The prediction was validatedusing experimental data of S. aureus bioaerosol deposition in a climatically controlled chamber. A discrete-time Markov chain was fitted to observational data of patient care and used to predict HCW surface contacts. A model of pathogen accretion on HCW hands was developed considering the physical parameters of transfer from surface-to-hands. A Monte-Carlo simulation was used to assess the effect of CFD deposition patterns in conjunction with the contact sequence patterns to predict the contamination levels of bacteria on HCWs’ hands as they perform patient care in the two rooms.

Hand colonization depends significantly on care type, room layout and on the spatial distribution of pathogens between surfaces, which is influenced by ventilation. During care within multi-bed rooms, colonization levels increase due to the spatial spread of microorganisms contaminating multiple patient surfaces caused by the ventilation strategy.

Environment, Exposure Science & Risk Assessment Center: ESRAC is funded by Water, Environmental, and Energy Solutions (WEES) and located in the Mel & Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health. The center promotes interdisciplinary research involving academic and industry cooperatives. The Center brings together local and global partners with interests in exposure science and human health risk assessment including, but not limited to, UA faculty, academic professionals, staff, students and community and industry stakeholders. Learn more: https://esrac.arizona.edu

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