Cover your mouth no more

An end to airborne disease transmission? No more nudging the kids to cover their nose and mouth when coughing? No more getting grossed out by co-workers who cough in their hands and then try to shake yours?

It’s possible. Researchers at the University of Alberta may have discovered a way. The idea is the brainchild of Malcolm King and Gustavo Zayas, both work in the Division of Pulmonary Medicine at the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry. They developed an inhalant drug which will reduce or even eliminate the amount of bioaerosol -- the fancy word for the droplets of mucus and spit that fly out of your mouth -- that exits your mouth carrying with it disease and other contagious muck.

In a unique twist on medical discovery, King and Zavas consulted mechanical engineering experts. They went to PhD student Anwarul Hasan and an associate professor Carlos Lange, both stationed in the faculty of engineering at U of A. They were the ones charged with the dirty duty of determining the size and amount of spray affected by the drug King and Zavas developed.

Not to worry, a cough simulator was employed for the lab experiments. After five years of research they figured out how to alter the fluid in the lungs to almost completely eliminate the bioaerosol. This is early stage of development but the possibilities for the application of this drug are mind boggling. Epidemic flues could be stopped as well as just the general grossness of spraying your neighbor with your body fluids when you cough. And those droplets can linger. They can actually hover in the air for hours just waiting for some unsuspecting healthy person to breathe them in. \

Clinical trials are next.

Source: University of Alberta, ScienceDaily