An inexpensive type of portable filter efficiently screened SARS-CoV-2 and other disease-causing organisms from hospital air.

“Research at a hospital swamped by people with COVID-19 has confirmed that portable air filters effectively remove SARS-CoV-2 particles from the air — the first such evidence in a real-world setting1. The results suggest that air filters could be used to reduce the risk of patients and medical staff contracting SARS-CoV-2 in hospitals, the study’s authors say.”

“This study suggests that HEPA air cleaners, which remain little-used in Canadian hospitals, are a cheap and easy way to reduce risk from airborne pathogens,” says David Fisman, an epidemiologist at the University of Toronto, Canada, who was not involved in the research.

And the scientists found that the filters don’t only protect against SARS-CoV-2. When the filters were switched off, the air in both wards contained detectable amounts of other pathogens that cause infections in hospitals, such as Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Streptococcus pyogenes. The filters largely removed them. These organisms are not typically thought to spread through the air, but “this study suggests that these infections may also spread by aerosol”, Fisman says.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02669-2