Reply to the Letter to the Editor: infection control protocol inside computed tomography suites during coronavirus disease 2019 outbreak

Excerpt

I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. Joob and Dr. Wiwanitkit for their thoughtful letter regarding our report [1]. As they suggested, the risk faced by radiologists, radiologic technologists, and nurses who practice in the computed tomography (CT) suites is a critical issue. It is challenging for most hospitals to renovate the CT suite for scanning patients infected with the novel coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). It is considered that the person-to-person transmission is mainly caused by droplet or contact transmission [2], and donning the appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) and sanitizing with alcohol-based disinfectants may be adequate to prevent in-CT-suite transmission. In contrast, van Doremalen et al. [3] reported the possibility of aerosol and fomite transmission of SARS-CoV-2. Therefore, when respiratory intensive care, e.g., endotracheal intubation, is performed in the CT suite for a coronavirus disease 2019 patient with serious respiratory insufficiency, the CT suite should be non-operational for 2–3 h. This measure is for air change to occur after the patient has left the CT suite to avoid aerosol and fomite transmission. …