Role of Mechanical Ventilation in the Airborne Transmission of Infectious Agents in Buildings

[tetano]

Indoor Air. 2015 Nov 12. doi: 10.1111/ina.12267. [Epub ahead of print]
[h=1]Role of Mechanical Ventilation in the Airborne Transmission of Infectious Agents in Buildings.[/h] Luongo JC[SUP]1[/SUP], Fennelly KP[SUP]2[/SUP], Keen JA[SUP]3[/SUP], Zhai ZJ[SUP]4[/SUP], Jones BW[SUP]5[/SUP], Miller SL[SUP]1[/SUP].
[h=3]Author information[/h]

[h=3]Abstract[/h] Infectious disease outbreaks and epidemics such as those due to SARS, influenza, measles, tuberculosis, and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome-coronavirus have raised concern about the airborne transmission of pathogens in indoor environments. Significant gaps in knowledge still exist regarding the role of mechanical ventilation in airborne pathogen transmission (APT). This review, prepared by a multidisciplinary group of researchers, focuses on summarizing the strengths and limitations of epidemiologic studies that specifically addressed the association of at least one heating, ventilating and/or air-conditioning (HVAC) system-related parameter with airborne disease transmission in buildings. The purpose of this literature review was to assess the quality and quantity of available data and to identify research needs. This review suggests that there is a need for well designed observational and intervention studies in buildings with better HVAC system characterization and measurements of both airborne exposures and disease outcomes. Studies should also be designed so that they may be used in future quantitative meta-analyses. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.


[h=4]KEYWORDS:[/h] HVAC ; Airborne diseases; Airborne pathogen transmission; Epidemiology; Ventilation rates; Ventilation systems

PMID: 26562748 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

 

[crittendenje]

Thank you for posting this.

From a Naval facilities perspective, the TWO most relevant findings of this article appear to be:

The Polaroid Buildings Study FINDING: “A significant positive relationship was found between the frequency of virus detection in air samples and average CO2 concentrations greater than 100 ppm above background… This suggests that occupants in buildings with low outdoor air [OA] supply may have an increased risk of exposure to infectious droplet nuclei emanating from a fellow building occupant.”

And

The military barracks study where they "categorized the barracks according to age, construction, and HVAC system configuration and then assessed disease prevalence in each category of barrack."

FINDING: “Results showed that occupancy affected risk of ARI transmission and the resulting prevalence rate ratios suggest that there was a significant risk of airborne ARI
transmission through HVAC systems. Higher rates of infection were found in the systems with both higher HVAC contact populations and less access to operable windows.
...and the pathogens reported include Streptococcus pneumonia, adenoviruses, and influenza viruses (Kak, 2007).”

-Jon