Becker's Clinical Quality & Infection Control

13 INFECTION CONTROL Plastic barriers may sometimes worsen spread of COVID-19, experts say By Mackenzie Bean C lear plastic barriers have become a staple in many public settings amid the pandemic, but scientists say they oen do little to prevent COVID-19's spread, and at times, may actually make things worse, e New York Times reported Aug. 19. e plastic shields are intended to protect people from germs in public settings such as classrooms, offices or stores. However, research- ers who study aerosols and ventilation say the barriers can impede normal air flow and create "dead zones" where aerosol particles accumulate in high concentrations, preventing clean air from cycling back into a room. "If you have a forest of barriers in a classroom, it's going to interfere with proper ventilation of that room," Linsey Marr, PhD, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Blacksburg-based Virginia Tech and a leading expert on viral trans- mission, told the Times. "Everybody's aerosols are going to be trapped and stuck there and building up, and they will end up spreading beyond your own desk." ere is little real-world evidence available on how the clear barriers affect the risk of contract- ing COVID-19, but preliminary studies suggest they offer limited protection, according to the Times. For example, modeling studies done by British researchers found the plastic shields effectively blocked large particles from someone coughing, but not smaller aerosols exhaled while someone speaks. " Smaller aerosols travel over the screen and become mixed in the room air within about five minutes," Catherine Noakes, PhD, a ventilation expert and professor of environmental engineer- ing for buildings at the University of Leeds in England, told the Times. "is means if people are interacting for more than a few minutes, they would likely be exposed to the virus regardless of the screen." n Breathalyzers for COVID-19? Scientists say it's possible By Mackenzie Bean S cientists across the globe are developing breath-based COVID-19 tests to rapidly identify individuals carrying the virus, The New York Times reported July 11. The devices analyze chemical compounds in people's breath to detect unique patterns that signify COVID-19 infection. Researchers at Ohio State University in Columbus say they're seeking FDA emergency au- thorization for their COVID-19 breathalyzer. Singapore's health agency already granted provisional authorization to two such tests in May. A Dutch company's SpiroNose test was even used to screen Eurovision Song Contest contestants for the virus this spring. "It's clear now, I think, that you can detect this disease with a breath test," Paul Thomas, a chemist at Loughborough University in England, told the Times. "This isn't science fiction." Creating portable devices that can quickly screen for diseases has long been on scientists' radars. But acting on this idea has proven challeng- ing, as diet can affect the chemicals one exhales, and different diseases may create similar chemical patterns, the Times said. But the pandemic has spurred new research and investment into the area that, when combined with advancements in sensor technology and machine learning, could make disease-detecting breathalyzers a reality, according to the report. n CDC reports 1st cases of untreatable fungus By Erica Carbajal T wo clusters of untreatable Candida auris infections have been detected in Texas and Washington, D.C., since January, according to the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report published July 23. It's the first time the fungus has been detected in people who never received antifungal medication, suggesting it may have spread from person to person. From January to April, three pan-resistant infections were reported in a Washington nursing home and two were reported at two Texas hospitals that share patients. The CDC did not identify the facilities where the out- breaks occurred and said there was no link between the two clusters. The three Washington infections were detected after screening 101 C. auris cases, while the two Texas infections were detected after screening 22 cases. "These two simultaneous, independent clusters of pan- or echino- candin-resistant C. auris cases in patients with overlapping inpatient healthcare exposures and without previous echinocandin use pro- vide the first evidence suggesting that pan- or echinocandin-resis- tant C. auris strains might have been transmitted in U.S. healthcare settings," the CDC said. n

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