Re: [DIYbio] DIYbio against Ebola!

On Thu, Oct 2, 2014 at 5:35 AM, Patrik D'haeseleer <patrikd@gmail.com> wrote:
- Protective equipment is a huge issue, with health workers needing to wear head-to-toe protective suits in 100+ F heat all day long. Can we learn anything from how sports mascot suits are constructed with built-in ventilation, for example? Just a wild idea...

You may be interested in looking into how astronauts keep cool. They have reduced maneuverability but there's all sorts of strange materials to help with heat management issues. Also, consider flipping it around where instead of isolating healthcare workers from patients, the patients should be the ones under isolation (and from each other, and don't contaminate different patients with the same hazard suits, etc). Unfortunately the cost of per-patient isolation is high. I am not sure how to solve that. Isolation tanks, flush to clean? https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1070936311/zen-float-tent-first-affordable-isolation-tank-for Needs some rubber glove attachments, larger windows, temperature sensors, communication, entertainment/music, secure draining (or just constant flow of water), feeding, wash cycle, some way of keeping comfortable during dry cycles, etc. I haven't put much thought into this.
 
- Taking *off* those protective suits turns out to be a major source of infections for hospital personnel. Could they be redesigned to be more inherently safe to take off? NASA's new Z-1 Z-1 space suit has a hatch on the back that allows the suit to dock with a portal on a spacecraft or rover so an astronaut can crawl through without letting dust in or air out. Probably overkill, but perhaps there's something to treating the entire suit as a "glove" that you can take off.

I think overkill is better in this situation, since the alternative means possible infection. Start with overkill, then back off from there.
 
- Bryan
http://heybryan.org/
1 512 203 0507

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