Fighting against MERS-CoV in central hospitals in Saudi ArabiaMERS FactsMiddle East respiratory syndrome co-ronavirus (MERS-CoV) is a viral respira-tory disease that was first identified in 2012 in Saudi Arabia. The disease has reached epidemic proportions in its country of origin and has also spread to neighbouring countries in the Gulf area. The disease has lately spread even to Korea and China.

MERS is part of the coronavirus fa-mily and related to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) which infected nearly 10 000 people and claimed over 900 lives in an epide-mic in 2003. MERS is more dangero-us than SARS: morbidity rate of MERS is approximately 36 % whereas it is less than 10 % for SARS patients.

MERS is suspected to have spread to humans via camels but this has not yet been confirmed. Most cases of

MERS have been transmitted from hu-man to human, although according to WHO MERS is less easily transmitted than SARS and transmission requires close proximity.

Spreading of the disease has occurred in healthcare facilities where patients have not been isolated, as the diagno-sis has not yet been confirmed. Both other patients and healthcare profes-sionals have been contaminated this way.

MERS patients need to be isolated in Airborne Infection Isolation rooms to not infect healthcare providers and ot-her patients.

MERS in Saudi ArabiaThe MERS epidemic has been especi-ally severe in Saudi Arabia, where ac-cording to WHO more than 85 % of all MERS cases have occurred.

When the epidemic struck, hospitals in Saudi Arabia were not ready for the amount of patients that desperate-ly needed isolation rooms. Hospitals had to build new Airborne Infection Isolation (AII) rooms with negative pressure rapidly.

In addition to the shortage of isolation rooms, there were serious problems with isolation rooms that were using HEPA filter purification. In Dammam Central Hospital, air pressure could not be kept as stable as needed in rooms with HEPA filters. The quality of air varied so that they could not be certain that the air was safe and clean at all times. Moreover, these isolati-

Spreading of the disease has occured in health care facili-ties where patient have not been isolated.

Case story

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on rooms had to be evacuated when the filters needed to be changed and HEPA filters had even been found guil-ty of causing contaminations.

Finnish Air Purification InnovationGenano Ltd is a Finnish manufacturer of air purification units. Genano’s mis-sion is to create clean air solutions for commercial and industrial applications by using its patented Genano techno-logy®. Its air purification systems can be used in many applications, e.g. iso-lation wards, critical areas and clean-rooms.

The core of Genano’s air purificati-on technology is the ability to clear in-door air of particulate matter of any size, starting with nanometre sized particles.

Genano units do not only clear the air from particles, they also kill orga-nic particles such as bacteria and vi-ruses. This makes Genano air purifiers ideal for isolation rooms where clean air free from bacteria and viruses is es-sential. As the viruses and bacteria do not stay alive inside the units and the-re are no filters that need to be remo-ved, cleaning of Genano units is safe

and isolation rooms do not need to be evacuated for filter changes. Instead, isolation rooms can be used conti-nuously.

SolutionGenano has been an important part-ner in Saudi Arabia in combatting the MERS epidemic. Genano has helped build new isolation rooms and instal-led Genano air purifiers to keep pa-tients, visitors and health care pro-fessionals safe in hospitals and other health care facilities.

Several units have been installed in hospital isolation rooms in for examp-le Dammam, Jazzan and Quatif. Additionally units have been instal-led in pathogen diagnostics facilities. Ministries of Agriculture and Health in Saudi Arabia have also built isolati-on rooms and PCR cleanrooms with Genano units to fight the threat of MERS.

ResultsWith the help of Genano air purifiers, Saudi Arabian hospitals and other healthcare facilities have been able to treat patients safely and without the risk of additional virus infections. Dammam Central Hospital has re-ported that using Genano air purifiers has been very successful. As the de-vices use a different technology from HEPA filters, there is no risk of infecti-on through the device itself.

Air pressure in the isolation rooms has been stable, which it was not pre-viously with HEPA filter purifiers. The isolation rooms could be used continuously, since there is no need for filter changes in the Genano air purifiers.

The users at Dammam Central Hospital are satisfied with the constant good quality of clean air the Genano air purifiers generate and can now be certain that the air is clean and safe.

Genano units do not only clear the air from particles, they also kill organic particles such as bacteria and viruses.

The isolation rooms could be used continuously, since the-re is no need for filter changes in the Genano air purifiers.

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Ministy of Health MetropoliLab

Certificates

The Karol Marcinkowski University of Medical Scienses

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