Aspergillus Fungus Under a Scanning Electron Microscope
Hospitals are supposed to provide a clean and sanitary area for patients to recover in. Unfortunately, one area of hospitals routinely goes without being cleaned or considered, often with deadly results. This out of sight, out of mind area is the hospital’s ductwork, which can become a breeding ground for dangerous microbes if it isn’t kept clean.
These ducts can end up blowing bacteria, viruses, mold and fungus throughout the building. Typically many of these microbes do not pose a hazard, but for patients with weakened immune systems they can be extremely dangerous. While most hospitals have specialized air pressure rooms for highly contagious patients, the general airflow is not as heavily controlled in standard rooms.
The CDC has estimated that over 1.7 million people get an infection while they are at a hospital, which adds $4.5 billion in increased patient costs each year.
At least 5%, or over 85,000 of these Healthcare Associated Infections (HAIs) are caused by construction or maintenance work being performed in the building. The dust, dirt, and debris from these work sites can travel through the air ducts to reach vulnerable patients.
One of the biggest issues with improper hospital ductwork cleaning is the spread of the Aspergillus fungus. While strains of this fungus are present in everyday air and dirt, certain strains are stirred up by construction or other maintenance and spread throughout the air ducts to patient’s rooms, where it will cause Aspergillosis.
In 1982-1983 the Roswell Park Memorial Institute in Buffalo, New York had ten bone marrow transplant patients die from an Aspergillosis infection spread by an out of date and dirty air filtration system.
In 1994-1995 Jewish Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky fourteen cases were brought against the hospital for organ transplant patients dying when Aspergillus was spread throughout the building during construction work on the outside of the building.
Then, in 2014 a 9 year old boy who had beaten Leukemia twice died from an Aspergillosis lung infection caused by construction dust at the Birmingham Children’s Hospital while he was being treated.