Hiwar, W orcid.org/0000-0003-3742-3456, King, M orcid.org/0000-0001-7010-476X, Kharrufa, H et al. (3 more authors) (2022) The impact of ventilation rate on reducing the microorganisms load in the air and on surfaces in a room-sized chamber. Indoor Air, 32 (11). e13161. ISSN 0905-6947
Abstract
Hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) are a global challenge incurring mortalities and high treatment costs. The environment plays an important role in transmission due to contaminated air and surfaces. This includes microorganisms' deposition from the air onto surfaces. Quantifying the deposition rate of microorganisms enables understanding surface contamination and can inform strategies to mitigate the infection risk. We developed and validated a novel Automated Multiplate Passive Air Sampling (AMPAS) device. This enables sequences of passive deposition samples to be collected over a controlled time period without human intervention. AMPAS was used with air sampling to measure the effect of ventilation rate and spatial location on the deposition rate of aerosolized Staphylococcus aureus in a 32 m3 chamber. Increasing the ventilation rate from 3 to 6 ACH results in a reduction of microbial load in the air and on surfaces by 45% ± 10% and 44% ± 32%, respectively. The deposition rate onto internal surfaces λd was calculated as 1.38 ± 0.48 h−1. Samples of airborne and surface microorganisms taken closer to the ventilation supply showed a lower concentration than close to the extract. The findings support the importance of controlling the ventilation and the environmental parameters to mitigate both air and surface infection risks in the hospital environment.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2022 The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | aerosol transmission, AMPAS, bioaerosols deposition, infection mitigation, Staphylococcus aureus, surface decontamination, ventilation rate |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Civil Engineering (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) EP/P023312/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 04 Apr 2023 14:04 |
Last Modified: | 04 Apr 2023 14:04 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Identification Number: | 10.1111/ina.13161 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:194072 |