@inproceedings{Amadi:2013, author = {Amadi, HO and Kawuwa, MB and Mohammed, IL and Oyedokun, A and Muhammad, H}, title = {Eradication of climate-induced neonatal hyperthermia through nursery building design}, year = {2013} }
TY - CPAPER AB - Daytime ambient temperatures of tropical climates can rapidly rise in excess of 43°C, overheating any exposed objects. This leads to the over-warming of neonatal nurseries, occupant baby temperatures soaring up to hyperthermic 40°C during early evenings of sunny days. Unaware of this neonatal ‘evening fever syndrome (EFS)’, clinicians have responded with doses of antibiotics mistaking this as infection sign. Others combined their desperate measures with ‘water-sponging’ of babies above 37.9°C. Thermoneutral instability increases morbidity and slows down progress. Unnecessary antibiotic treatment complicates situations and could kill such baby. Climate-induced hyperthermia could be eliminated if nurseries were appropriately sited and designed to guarantee natural coolness. This will allow better neonatal thermoneutral regulation through incubators.Federal Medical Centre Nguru gave Ethical Approval and hosted this research. Two laboratories of building constructs were erected, each double-walled having in-between air space for lagging. Lab-1 was new building with underground floor and heat-exchanger. Lab-2 was an existing room renovated for existing nursery correction. The laboratories were assessed on ability to maintain environmental coolness and incubator/neonatal thermal stability during extreme-hot days as compared to the hospital’s main nursery, ‘Control-ward’. Data collection continued for 24 months, constructions validated and extreme-hot months of February-May and August-October data extracted and analysed.Average peak-temperature of outside-wind was 43°C (range: 41°C–46°C); Control-ward was 39°C, Lab-2 (36°C) and Lab-1 (33°C). All incubators in Control overheated during the temperature-high periods of the day but there was no incubator overheating in Lab-1. There were 131 water-sponging events for fever-quenching on Forty-four (86%) of sampled babies in the Control-ward. Only AU - Amadi,HO AU - Kawuwa,MB AU - Mohammed,IL AU - Oyedokun,A AU - Muhammad,H PY - 2013/// TI - Eradication of climate-induced neonatal hyperthermia through nursery building design ER -