Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology Publication Info
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Efficacy of High‐Efficiency Particulate Air Filtration in Preventing Aspergillosis in Immunocompromised Patients With Hematologic Malignancies
Formats Available in JSTOR: PDF
Abstract(back to top)
OBJECTIVES. To describe and investigate the cause of an outbreak of 10 cases of nosocomial invasive infection with Aspergillus flavus in a hematologic oncology patient care unit.
DESIGN. A retrospective cohort study.
SETTING. The hematologic oncology unit of a comprehensive cancer center.
PATIENTS. Ninety‐one patients admitted to the hematologic oncology service between January 1 and December 31, 1992, for 4 or more consecutive days were included in the study.
RESULTS. Ten (18%) of 55 patients admitted from July to December 1992 were diagnosed as having invasive aspergillosis compared with 0 (0%) of 36 patients admitted from January to June 1992 to the same patient care units. Patient characteristics, mortality rate, autopsy rate, and admitting location did not change significantly during the course of the year to result in a sudden increase in the number of aspergillosis cases. The source of the outbreak was the high counts of Aspergillus conidia determined from air sampling in the non–bone marrow transplant wing during the outbreak. After high‐efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters were installed as an infection control measure, there were only two additional cases of nosocomial aspergillosis in the 2 years following the outbreak.
CONCLUSIONS. This outbreak occurred among hematologic oncology patients with prolonged granulocytopenia housed in an environment with neither HEPA filters nor laminar air flow units. Our data demonstrate that in the setting of an outbreak of aspergillosis, HEPA filters are protective for highly immunocompromised patients with hematologic malignancies and are effective at controlling outbreaks due to air contamination with Aspergillus conidia.
Bibliographic Information(back to top)
- Efficacy of High‐Efficiency Particulate Air Filtration in Preventing Aspergillosis in Immunocompromised Patients With Hematologic Malignancies
- Theresa Hahn , PhD, K. Michael Cummings , PhD, Arthur M. Michalek , PhD, Brian J. Lipman , MD, Brahm H. Segal , MD and Philip L. McCarthy ,Jr. , MD
- Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology
- Vol. 23, No. 9 (September 2002) (pp. 525-531)
Notes and References(back to top)
This item contains 1 note(s).
Notes
Drs. Hahn, Lipman, Segal, and McCarthy are from the Department of Medicine; Drs. Hahn and Cummings are from the Department of Cancer Prevention, Epidemiology and Biostatistics; and Dr. Michalek is from the Department of Educational Affairs, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, New York. Address reprint requests to Theresa Hahn, PhD, Departments of Medicine and Cancer Prevention, Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Elm & Carlton Streets, Buffalo, NY 14263. The authors thank the staff of the Department of Occupational and Environmental Safety at Roswell Park Cancer Institute for their management of the air and contact sampling and Nachimuthu Natarajan, MS, for assisting with data management.
Items Citing this Item (back to top)
2 item(s) in JSTOR cite this item
- V. Bergeron , PhD; G. Reboux , PhD; J. L. Poirot , MD; N. Laudinet , BSVol. 28, No. 10 (October 2007) pp. 1181-1186Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/520733
- Andrew J. Streifel , MPHVol. 23, No. 9 (September 2002) pp. 488-490Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/502093