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Lack of Nosocomial Spread of Varicella in a Pediatric Hospital with Negative Pressure Ventilated Patient Rooms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

John D. Anderson ,
Mavis Bonner ,
David W. Scheifele  and
B. Christof Schneider
John D. Anderson*
Affiliation:
Division of Microbiology, and the Division of Infectious Diseases, British Columbia's Children's Hospital, and D.W. Thomson Consultants Ltd., Consulting Engineers, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Mavis Bonner
Affiliation:
Division of Microbiology, and the Division of Infectious Diseases, British Columbia's Children's Hospital, and D.W. Thomson Consultants Ltd., Consulting Engineers, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
David W. Scheifele
Affiliation:
Division of Microbiology, and the Division of Infectious Diseases, British Columbia's Children's Hospital, and D.W. Thomson Consultants Ltd., Consulting Engineers, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
B. Christof Schneider
Affiliation:
Division of Microbiology, and the Division of Infectious Diseases, British Columbia's Children's Hospital, and D.W. Thomson Consultants Ltd., Consulting Engineers, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
*
Division of Microbiology, British Columbia's Children's Hospital, 4480 Oak Street, Vancouver, BC, CanadaV6H 3V4
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Abstract

All patients at the new British Columbia's Children's Hospital with chickenpox or Herpes zoster are nursed with appropriate precautions in single-bed rooms provided with negative pressure ventilation. Over a period of 1 year, no nosocomial infections were detected on follow-up of 110 susceptible patients who had been on wards at the same time as six cases of chickenpox and one immunocompromised patient with cutaneous dissemination of Varicella zoster. In a preceding study at the previous hospital, with similar staff, control measures, and patient population, in an isolation facility without negative pressure ventilation, nosocomial infections occurred in seven out of 41 susceptible patients who were on the same ward as two patients with chickenpox. These findings suggest that a simple negative pressure ventilation system without air locks is a useful adjunct in the control of cutaneous Varicella infections.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology , Volume 6 , Issue 3 , March 1985 , pp. 120 - 121
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America 1985

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