| | |  | Space technology used in cardiac care units | |
Plasmer space technology – a weapon against bio-pathogens
15 July 2004
'PlasmerTM' is a multi-stage system to clean the air for airborne micro-organisms. Originally invented by Russian scientists to clean the air onboard the Russian space station MIR in the early 90s, in April 2001 it was installed in the Russian segment on the International Space Station. The AirInSpace company, with support from ESA's Technology Transfer and Promotion Office, is using the PlasmerTM technology to fight air-borne micro-organisms, fungi, bacteria, spores and viruses, in hospital wards.
"In order to provide protection against serious health risks from bio-pathogens, we must understand what they are and how to destroy them," explains Vance Bergeron, AirInSpace Scientific Director. "We find that most of them are covered by a protective shell and if we can destroy this protective shell we can inactivate the pathogen itself and make them harmless. This is exactly what the PlasmerTM technology does. It is a three-stage unit that exposes these pathogens to several active forces, destroying their protective shell and internal structure and then capturing the remaining pieces."
| | A three-stage process | |
In the first stage of the PlasmerTM unit contaminated air passes through a series of fine pores with a high electric field deforming the cellular organism until they burst. Any physical contact between the infected agents and the electrodes causes an electrical shock that disintegrates the agents. The second stage of the reactor bombards the remaining organism with positive and negative ions (also named plasma) that penetrate the protective shells of the micro-organism destroying their internal structure. Finally the third stage of the reactor acts as an electrostatic nano-filter attracting and retaining any leftover material. After the three stages clean purified air exits the reactor.
The Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, USA, validated the PlasmerTM technology in 2002 for a wide spectrum of micro-organisms. In 2003 the Health Protection Agency at Porton Down in the United Kingdom measured the efficiency of the technology against bacterial (Bacillus subtilis var. niger) and viral aerosols (MS2 phage) to be above 99.99%.
| | PlasmerTM at work in Saint Louis Hospital | |
PlasmerTM to protect us on Earth
There are lots of invisible micro-organisms in the rooms where we live, but in most cases they do not present problems to healthy people. However these germs can pose a serious threat to those whose bodies have weakened or have reduced immune defence system, for instance after bone marrow transplants or leukaemia treatments.
The common solution for these immune-compromised patients is to isolate them in special clean room hospital wards. With this new space-originated equipment instead of moving the patients, it is now possible to deploy a clean-room 'tent' around any patient's bed. In burns units and operating theatres this system can also provide pure air, significantly reducing the risk of infection. It not only lowers the risk for patients but also reduces the risk for hospital staff.
| | | Space technology eliminates 99.9% of all micro-organisms under the protective 'tent' |
"In 2001, we started the development of a system using the PlasmerTM technology for hospitals. The objective was a portable and easy deployable system to clean the air for a wide range of biological pathogens," says Vance Bergeron, AirInSpace Scientific Director. "Early 2003 our system ImmunairTM was ready for test in hospitals. It is easily transportable and can be deployed within minutes, and delivers decontaminated air at a rate up to 1000 cubic metres per hour with a single-pass efficiency greater than 99.9% destruction of micro-organisms."
"This corresponds to the exchange of all air 200 times every hour within the ImmunairTM tent and about 20 times outside the tent in a conventional patient room," adds Bergeron. This supersedes the recommendations of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, of US Department of Health and Human Services, which calls for a change of air 6 to 12 times per hour for rooms hosting immune-compromised patients.
| | The pediatric intensive care unit in Necker Hospital in Paris | |
Space tech cleans air in Parisian hospitals
The mobile protective unit ImmunairTM has been under evaluation since the beginning of 2003. Over a 12-month period the system was used in four hospitals in Paris, Hospital Necker, Hospital Armand Trousseau, Hospital Saint-Louis and Hospital Piété Salpêtrière, and the CHU/Hôtel-Dieu in Clermont-Ferrand. The overall conclusion is that it provides an efficient means of protection for immune-compromised patients against airborne biological contamination.
Dr Svetlana Challier of the Parasite-Mycology laboratory at the Necker Hospital in Paris, says, "ImmunairTM makes it possible to reduce significantly the bacteria level in the air. It is a good compromise between an air-flow-based system to exchange all air and a closed 'bubble-like' system, because it is simpler to install and use, and it allows for easy entry and exit of medical staff. Moreover, ImmunairTM is portable and can be easy transferred to serve other patients."
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