Don’t ignore the risks from Cryptococcus

Andrew Poplett, an Authorising Engineer for both specialist ventilation and water quality, and the lead author on a Specialist Healthcare Ventilation Society Briefing Paper, Cryptococcus Briefing for AE(V)s, AP(V)s & Estates Professionals, published in February this year, discusses the threats to health, and especially to immunocompromised patients, posed by Cryptococcus, a fungus he believes is not especially well understood in healthcare engineering circles. He also outlines some of the design, maintenance, and other control measures to minimise the risks of infection to staff, patients, and visitors, to healthcare facilities from a fungus ‘ubiquitous in the environment’.

Following recent press coverage regarding an incident of two patient deaths at a Glasgow hospital – the city’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital – reported as potentially associated with infections of Cryptococcus, my aim in this article is to raise awareness of the potential risk from this bacterium, and highlight the potentially significant consequences to highly vulnerable patients. The Specialist Ventilation in Healthcare Society and Health Facilities Scotland have both produced supplementary guidance notes (see ‘Further reading’ at end of the article) to provide estates professionals with information and advice on what proportionate precautions and checks should be considered to minimise or address estates ventilation-related issues.

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