Negative Pressure Rooms Could Help In Battle To Contain Coronavirus
SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX 5) – Doctors who are participating in the fight to control the spreading coronavirus may end up using special negative pressure rooms to help isolate the virus.
In the city and county of San Francisco, there are 100 negative pressure rooms. The highly specialized medical units are equipped with ventilation so the air only flows into the room and not out onto the hospital floor, exposing medically compromised patients to infectious diseases.
The rooms are typically used for patients suffering from tuberculosis, measles and chickenpox, but could become vital in treating severe cases of COVID-19 caused by the coronavirus.
Inside Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, there are 50 negative pressure rooms. There are two doors to get from the hallway to the patient. The first door takes you into an anteroom stocked with personal protective equipment for medical personnel.
"A respirator -- which looks like a mask; we call those N95 masks. They'll put on eye protection, either a face shield or goggles, they'll put on a gown and they'll clean their hands and put on gloves," said Dr. Lisa Winston, hospital epidemiologist for Zuckerberg San Francisco General.
The doctors and nurses then go through a second door leading to the patient isolation room. None of the air from that isolation room will spill into the shared corridors of the hospital.
"It's important because certain germs can be spread when they form small particles in the air. And if that air is able to flow into other places, it is then possible for people to develop an infection," said Dr. Winston.
"It's certainly important that it not spread because we know that it can cause people to get quite sick and it's a new disease so we don't have immunity for it and we don't have a vaccine for it," said Dr. Winston.
