Thread by @BarryHunt008

Today I had an opportunity to address the CDC HICPAC committee

The amazing speakers before me covered many topics but generally pushed the committee to do more to protect patients & HCWs, esp wrt protection from airborne transmission
👏👏👏

This was my 3 minute pitch:

This is a turning point in the history of disease transmission and Infection Control.

We already face an unprecedented challenge of pathogens that transmit through the air with even more serious highly pathogenic threats on the horizon.

The need for Engineered Infection Prevention and Universal Air Precautions is becoming more imperative by the day.

Today there is a teenager in critical condition in ICU, Canada’s first known case of the highly pathogenic strain of H5N1.

It won’t be the last.

Here’s what is happening in Canadian Standards.

Because Respirators are too hard to breathe through, Canada created the world’s first new easy-breathing category, <100 Pa, significantly easier breathing than the NIOSH Standard of 245 Pa.

National Standards now in development include:

universal respirator use in healthcare;

PAPRs for RG4 pathogens;

Bioaerosol Respirators with breathing resistance as low as 25 Pa;

and Engineered Infection Prevention technologies like AutoUV, FarUV & Upper Air UV

My recommendations to this committee:

1. Specify easy-breathing N95s <100 Pa

2. Encourage NIOSH to create a Bioaerosol Respirator Standard with breathing resistance as low as 25 Pa

3. Specify & encourage Engineered Infection Prevention including Engineered Airborne Protection Rooms

A minimum of 6 Air Changes per Hour from ventilation

The equivalent of 30 additional Air Changes per Hour from Upper Air UV, FarUV, Air Purifiers or Displacement Ventilation

4. Specify new Precautions categories:

i. Universal Air Precautions - Respirators

ii. Engineered Air Precautions – Respirators + Engineering Controls for RG3 pathogens

iii. Isolation Air Precautions – PAPRs + Engineering Controls + AIIR for RG4 pathogens

Over the past 10 years, it’s quite possible that Engineered Infection Prevention plus Universal Air Precautions together could have prevented:

some 10 to 20 million Hospital Acquired Infections,

up to 1 million deaths,

and saved a trillion or so dollars.

Disease transmission in hospital continues to get worse, not better.

It used to be that 5% of infections were acquired in hospital. Now it can be 10 to 20% for some diseases.

It used to be HAI mortality was 5%. Now it can be 10% or even higher for some diseases.

The one-time capital cost to deploy Engineered Infection Prevention across 1 million beds in the US and Canada would be about $50 billion.

The net return though could be $50 billion per year. Every year.

A smart investment that could pay dividends for years to come.

Every journey begins with a first step.

Let's take that first step now by recommending Engineered Infection Prevention and Universal Air Precautions.

Thank you