Episode 18: Exploring airborne COVID-19 transmission in hospital

In this episode in our series on COVID-19 the virus, variants and vaccines we are chatting with Professor Kirsty Buising, Royal Melbourne Hospital Infectious Diseases Physician and co-lead of the Antimicrobial Resistance and Hospital Acquired Infections Theme at the Doherty Institute.

Last year, she was at the centre of the Royal Melbourne Hospital’s response to the rising COVID-19 infections in healthcare workers. She and her team scrutinised wards to try and identify and close any gaps that may have been allowing the virus to spread so freely.

One of the aspects they looked at closely was airflow, and examined the impact of portable air cleaners, known as air scrubbers on aerosol clearance.