Review #5 - March 14

Coughing Mannequins Shed Light On Flu Transmission

Citation:   Lipson, P. (2013). Coughing mannequins shed light on flu transmission. Forbes, 2013 (March 2). Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterlipson/2013/03/02/coughing-manequins-shed-light-on-flu-transmission/.

Review:  This article actually references another article, High Humidity Leads to Loss of Infectious Influenza Virus from Simulated Coughs, from the online journal Plos One.  The referenced article describes the data used in the study itself; the writer of the Forbes article gives the impression that he wishes to inform the public about some interesting findings that the reader can connect to their own lives and those around them.  The article(s) focus on the finding that viruses change throughout the winter (generally, the prime of flu season).  They found that the spread of influenza was related to the humidity of the room.  As the humidity increased, the rate of spread dropped rapidly.  This finding could become acceptable practice within the last few weeks of this year's flu season.

    

Reflection:  I chose this article because I am very interested in mannequins (or manikins, which is the way it is spelled in most health care uses) that are programmable.  It is rare enough to have examples of persons with abnormalities they can hear on a stethoscope and rarer still to find a high school student with a medical condition who is willing to be used as a "demo."  Programmable manikins are ideal for teaching high school students who cannot get to a healthcare facility to job shadow.  Teenagers are often expected to behave like heathens (when 90 percent of them do not) and the hospitals don't want to take chances on them bringing in a lot of germs anyway.  I put the programmable manikin on my "wish list" every year.  So far, I'm still wishing.  I do have a humidistat in my room.  Yes, such a thing exists!  It's like a thermostat, only it adjusts the humidity.  Reading this article also makes me think I'll set the humidity a little higher in my classroom.  That was certainly an unexpected use of classroom technology that this article illuminated for me.