Drug kills cough droplets

With the autumn looming, we brace for the flu and cold season. Anyone travelling to work on a cramped train knows the effect a sneezing fellow passenger will have.

Fortunately, a new drug has been developed that could eliminate the disease-carrying droplets spread through the air by these bodily outbursts.

Flus and colds are typically transmitted through the air when an infected person coughs or sneezes, hence the standard advice to cover your mouth or nose to protect others when you do so.

So scientists at the University of Alberta developed a special machine that simulates human coughs to see if they could find a way to prevent the spread of disease in this way.

Using the machine study leaders Malcolm King and Gustavo Zayas were able to develop a drug that affects the formation of droplets in fluid to almost completely eliminate the disease carrying particles.

The drug can be easily inhaled and would provide a major weapon in the fight against the spread of airborne diseases.

One important aspect of this work is that in outbreaks of conditions such as bird flu and swine flu, front-line health workers are often badly affected as they are exposed to many people who are ill.

The use of a drug that could suppress the spread of the disease by patients coughing or sneezing could provide much needed protection to these key workers.

Further work will now be carried out to turn this breakthrough into a viable commercial product.

This article was published on Thu 23 September 2010