Question for CPAP users

Reinfection is nasty business, and can be life threatening if you have a weakened immune system.

Your nasal hairs and your membranes help to filter out the nasty stuff so your antibodies can actually get in and do their their work. The stuff that gets out is what's contagious and what you and others may not have immunity to. 

It's complicated to explain especially as I'm not medically trained. This is a distillation of reading in why we keep up personal protection practices and sanitising practices in healthcare, in antimicrobial resistance, in population health, in why we keep things like air conditioning sanitised and mould-free (legionnaires, anyone?), in why and how often to change face masks even in kitchen/abbattoir work etc.

The machines have fans and vents. The air circulating through them comes through the masks then into your homes. Everyone in contact with you thereafter, and anyone in your home (including any cleaners and anyone laundering your bed linen) could catch anything. 

Discuss it with a health professional you trust.

As the Apnoea Association points out, the moist environment also allows other moulds and bacteria to grow in the equipment, because of the room air being drawn in. 

Other sources including the Mayo Clinic, sleep clinics and manufacturers point out that equipment probably isn't working properly even if you think it is if it's not properly and regularly (frequently) sanitised. It's not a dollar-grab, since you could simple water-and-drain techniques.

https://www.sleepassociation.org/cpap/how-to-clean-your-cpap/

yeah, well, I'll rely on my anecdotal 20 years of experience, which tells me there is no threat from my CPAP.

Well, even back in 2012 the FDA was carefully explaining via consumer video how to wash the filters, mask and hoses daily and why. You might not notice the damage you’re doing to your health, but then you probably didn’t think you had apnoea either. 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=B10ABypyGOo

I think Im going to vomit.  

If you do it while wearing your cpap mask, be sure to clean it.

boomie said:

I think Im going to vomit.  

At the time I was diagnosed with apnea, I didn't even know what it was, and once diagnosed I never questioned it, because, you know, there was actual data to show me. So your dig did not land.

Secondly, show me actual cases of people getting sick from a CPAP and I might change my mind. The google has yet to show me. Nor have you.

joanne said:

Well, even back in 2012 the FDA was carefully explaining via consumer video how to wash the filters, mask and hoses daily and why. You might not notice the damage you’re doing to your health, but then you probably didn’t think you had apnoea either. 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=B10ABypyGOo

drummer boy, I’m on day 9 of a crashing nonstop migraine and I know I’m having great difficulty finding words and maintaining clarity. I’m not able to gather my strength to find the evidence that would help to make you think about the results of your actions on your own health. 

An analogy here might be cleaning out your scuba breathing equipment: if you don’t see the need to do that  even when you’re doing maintenance checks and training runs, then why would you bother to maintain your health cleaning something you shove next to your nostrils for a minimum 5 continuous hours every night? It’s not about what you breath out, it’s about what’s growing on the surfaces of the equipment when you’re not using it, and then rebreathing that in. 

This is partly how MRSA spreads rapidly even though you’re personally ‘not that sick’. This is how people ‘suddenly’ develop golden staph. This is how people with apnoea are at greater risk of longer term serious inflammatory illnesses such as dementia and renal illnesses. 

I don't know squat about scuba diving equipment, so I have no comment.

I betcha the interior of my nose is more dangerous than my cpap mask. Also, I would say that the physics of a CPAP naturally fight against any kind of harmful growth (again,with no humidifier. the humidifier moisture adds a whole different dimension to it. It's part of the reason I don't bother with it.)

You know how a CPAP works right? Constant Positive Air Pressure. Every time you breathe into the mask, what ever comes out of your nostrils has to fight against a wall of air pushing against it. I would think the amount of anything that remains in the mask would have to be quite minimal. And then, you breathe it all back in immediately. And again, the constant air flow prevents moisture from building up, depriving any germs of a growth medium. Or at least severely limiting it.

Anyway, your posts are simply putting up a lot of theoretical threats based on what, I can't quite follow. As I said, show me some data on the problem. Any data will do. Doesn't have to be disease related - just show me someone who has bothered to study the problem to the extent of actually measuring what might be growing in a mask during regular usage.

Also, if you're right, we should be notifying doctors to make sure that questions about CPAP usage are included in every check-up, due to the apparently horrifying threat they pose.

It's all nonsense if you ask me.

drummerboy said:


... As I said, show me some data on the problem. Any data will do. 

Here's data for ya.  Just last week, these two guys failed to clean their cpap equipment. Now look what happened.