PENTAMIDINE AEROSOLS AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONTAMINATION - HEALTH-CARE WORKERS AT RISK

In our hospital safety guidelines are available for the handling of pe ntamidine in the day-care department, but no safety ventilation cabin is used because only one patient a day has been treated. The number of patients to be treated, however, is growing, resulting in the need to treat more than one patient a day. To determine the environmental con tamination and exposure of health-care workers during and after aeroso lised pentamidine treatment of more than one patient with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome a day a high-performance liquid chromatogra phic method is used for the detection and quantification of pentamidin e. High volume air samples were taken before, immediately after and th e day after a treatment session of up to three patients. Also, sedimen t samples and personal air samples close to the mouth of the health-ca re workers were taken. Immediately after a treatment session the air i n the room contains 1.0-99.7 mu g pentamidine per m(3) of air. Before and the morning after treatment no pentamidine could be detected in th e air. Sediment samples vary in detectable amounts of pentamidine from <5 to 1165 ng pentamidine/cm(2). The personal air samples also show a large variation in quantities of pentamidine: <5-170 ng a filter. Whe n large amounts of pentamidine in the high volume air samples are foun d high amounts of pentamidine on the sediment samples an the personal air samples are found as well. This means that the patients treated sh ould be instructed well on how to use the nebulizer correctly and be m onitored during treatment. Additional safety measures (for example the use of a safety ventilation cabin) should be taken when more than one patient is treated a day.