What role does ventilation play for transmission of COVID-19 and other viruses? Our understanding of respiratory virus transmission and how we can protect ourselves has probably been forever changed.
Some people, such as those who are immunocompromised or who have chronic pulmonary conditions, might wear masks in certain settings, at least part of the year.
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I think we now know better how to protect ourselves against respiratory viruses in general and I think there’s going to be heightened awareness moving forward. What we were finding was that some of the precautions we were taking for COVID are likely working to prevent or reduce transmission of a whole host of respiratory viruses.
With an exacerbation, your breathing gets harder and often you require antibiotics or steroids and in severe cases, hospitalization. I treat patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, commonly known as COPD, and one of the amazing things is that the frequency of flare-ups or exacerbations has plummeted during the pandemic. Social distancing and hand hygiene work for droplets, but for aerosols, masks and good ventilation become primary infection mitigation strategies. What we’ve learned during the COVID-19 pandemic, however, is that coronaviruses are also spread through aerosols, much tinier particles that can stay in the air much longer and travel farther. Han: We thought a lot of respiratory diseases were only transmitted via larger respiratory droplets, which when exhaled, fall relatively quickly to the ground and can only spread so far. What has been learned about COVID-19 that might help with fighting other respiratory viruses? I think overall we’re doing a better job now fighting COVID-19 than we were when the pandemic first began, but it’s obviously still scary for all of us when a patient gets that sick. Unfortunately, the mortality rate for people who require invasive mechanical ventilation has been high. If this isn’t adequate, we sedate patients and can provide oxygen through a mechanical ventilator. We often treat patients with COVID-19 who aren’t getting enough oxygen using a specialized oxygen delivery method called high-flow nasal cannula to drive large amounts of oxygen into the lungs. As the functioning lung units become ravaged, they no longer do what you need them to do: bring in oxygen and remove carbon dioxide. As fluid and cellular debris build up, they begin to accumulate, causing shadows we see on X-ray indicating pneumonia. The cells that normally regenerate the lung lining are also killed off. The reason we get sick is because there’s a war going on between the virus and your lungs. Han: Essentially the COVID-19 virus enters the respiratory tract and takes over the cells lining your respiratory tract, turning them into virus producing machines that in turn coat your entire respiratory tract with viral particles. MeiLan Han, M.D., a professor of medicine in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care at the University of Michigan, offers insight and advice to help you breathe easier. ‘It’s like breathing’ is a turn of phrase meant to convey that something is natural and effortless.īut over the past couple of years, various emerging threats-from worsening climate change to the COVID-19 pandemic-have shown that breathing can’t always be taken for granted and that protecting your lung health is of critical importance.
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