In German hospitals the burden is increasing due to the increasing number of Covid – 19 – Patient. In addition to the work pressure, medical personnel have to worry about infecting themselves. This fear also discourages patients with other illnesses from visiting the clinic. French scientists are now reporting in the journal “Jama Network Open” that air samples from intensive care units, corridors and toilets can be contaminated. However, the particles of the pathogen SARS-CoV-2 are mostly not viable.

End 2019 a new disease began to spread in China, the lung disease COVID caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 – 19. Quarantine measures to contain the virus lead to production losses and increasingly severe consequences for the economy and everyday life.

Studies evaluated in meta-analysis The team around the pharmacologist Gabriel Birgand from the Nantes University Hospital evaluated for the meta-analysis 24 studies, four of which were unpublished. One paper from Great Britain and one from Italy are the only studies from Europe. Ten studies come from China.

The respective teams had on average 24 Samples taken from the air of different hospital areas and analyzed for viral load using PCR methods. In those areas frequented by patients, well every sixth sample was positive – 82 of 471 (17, 4 percent).

Corridors and toilets burdened Intensive care units were therefore over 25 Percent of the samples contaminated, compared to just under 11 percent on other stations. The highest percentage of positive samples came from publicly accessible hallways (56 percent) – however, there were only 16 Samples have been taken. In general, every third test (24, 3 percent) from public hospital areas was positive.

Toilets and bathrooms with a positive rate of just under 21 percent – 5 of 21 Rehearse. The authors suspect that this is probably because these rooms are small and poorly ventilated. Studies had previously shown that the stool of Covid – 17 – patients SARS-CoV-2 – Contain traces and flushing a toilet can stir up virus-contaminated aerosol clouds.

Risk of transmission in staff rooms A good twelve percent of the samples in the staff rooms were positive, in the meeting rooms good 19 percent. This fits in with a possible transmission of SARS-CoV-2 among employees during breaks, the authors write: During this time, the protective masks in the often small rooms are often removed.

Petra Gastmeier, Director of the Institute for Hygiene and Environmental Medicine at the Berlin Charité, reported at the National Health Quality Congress at the end of November that a large part of the SARS-CoV-2 transmissions took place in the hospital among employees.

Virus residues are not always infectious The authors of the meta-analysis admit that the direct comparison of the studies is problematic because the respective teams had very different methodological approaches. They also emphasize that it is mostly unclear whether the virus residues in the positive samples were infectious or not. Virus cultures were only created in five studies; cultivation was only successful in 7 of a total of 81 attempts (8.6 percent).

Further investigations are necessary here. Nonetheless, the high viral loads in toilets, bathrooms, staff areas and corridors meant “that these areas had to be used to prevent Covid – 19 – Transfer should be carefully considered “.

(tiw)