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What if there was a drug that could completely eliminate(1) airborne disease transmission(2) that occurs when someone coughs? Researchers(3) at the University of Alberta believe they have found a way to achieve this.

The idea behind this work came from Malcolm King and his research associate(4) Gustavo Zayas, both who work in the Division of Pulmonary Medicine(5) at the U of A(6)’s Faculty(7) of Medicine & Dentistry(8).

“We need a treatment to reduce the spread of airborne diseases(9) such as influenza(10), particularly when a new strain(11) appears as was the case with last year's H1N1 influenza(12),” said King about their decision to analyze airborne infectious transmissions(13).

King and Zayas developed a drug that, when inhaled(14), would reduce or eliminate the amount of droplets(15), called bioaerosol(16), coming out of the mouth when a disease-infected(17) person coughs. These airborne particles(18) can stay in the air for minutes and sometimes even hours.

“Our treatment has the potential to greatly reduce the amount of fine virus-laden(19) droplets that result from coughing and therefore reduce the risk for people who come in contact with(20) carriers(21) of the flu(22),” added King.

In order to help perfect this drug King and Zayas enlisted in(23) the expertise(24) of PhD(25) graduate Anwarul Hasan and associate professor(26) Carlos Lange, both from the Faculty of Engineering’s mechanical engineering(27) department.

“My engineering skills and expertise in the field of fluid flow(28) was essential for this project, which was missing at that point and eventually played a key role in(29) its success,” said Hasan.