HOUSTON – A ventilator is a machine used in hospitals to breathe for you when you can’t breathe on your own.
Some people with CPAP machines have written KPRC suggesting they be used when lacking ventilators but there’s no way that would work. A CPAP is a gentle, continuous flow of air while you’re sleeping. It is not the same as a ventilator.
Actually, if you were to get a virus, sleep medicine physician Philip Alapat, MD, from Baylor College of Medicine, warns that C-PAPs could potentially spread the virus to bed partners.
“Sleeping right next to your bed partner with the CPAP device is the same thing that you would not do when you were sick, coughing and sneezing with an upper respiratory infection otherwise,” Alapat said. “CPAP device has a persistent air leak, which could possibly include some of these air cells, these little small bits of mucus and in the same way that, the spread of those aerosols to nearby individuals is possible.”
However, he said during this outbreak he does not recommend discontinuing the use of CPAP because they’re critical to maintaining good health in people who need them.
“It kind of naturally translates to trying to improve your overall health, to try and fight off viral infections,” Alapat said.