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      The airborne transmission of infection between flats in high-rise residential buildings: Tracer gas simulation

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          Abstract

          Airborne transmission of infectious respiratory diseases in indoor environments has drawn our attention for decades, and this issue is revitalized with the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). One of the concerns is that there may be multiple transmission routes across households in high-rise residential buildings, one of which is the natural ventilative airflow through open windows between flats, caused by buoyancy effects. Our early on-site measurement using tracer gases confirmed qualitatively and quantitatively that the re-entry of the exhaust-polluted air from the window of the lower floor into the adjacent upper floor is a fact. This study presents the modeling of this cascade effect using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technique. It is found that the presence of the pollutants generated in the lower floor is generally lower in the immediate upper floor by two orders of magnitude, but the risk of infection calculated by the Wells–Riley equation is only around one order of magnitude lower. It is found that, with single-side open-window conditions, wind blowing perpendicularly to the building may either reinforce or suppress the upward transport, depending on the wind speed. High-speed winds can restrain the convective transfer of heat and mass between flats, functioning like an air curtain. Despite the complexities of the air flow involved, it is clear that this transmission route should be taken into account in infection control.

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          Factors involved in the aerosol transmission of infection and control of ventilation in healthcare premises

          Summary The epidemics of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2003 highlighted both short- and long-range transmission routes, i.e. between infected patients and healthcare workers, and between distant locations. With other infections such as tuberculosis, measles and chickenpox, the concept of aerosol transmission is so well accepted that isolation of such patients is the norm. With current concerns about a possible approaching influenza pandemic, the control of transmission via infectious air has become more important. Therefore, the aim of this review is to describe the factors involved in: (1) the generation of an infectious aerosol, (2) the transmission of infectious droplets or droplet nuclei from this aerosol, and (3) the potential for inhalation of such droplets or droplet nuclei by a susceptible host. On this basis, recommendations are made to improve the control of aerosol-transmitted infections in hospitals as well as in the design and construction of future isolation facilities.
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            The Airborne Transmission of Infection in Hospital Buildings: Fact or Fiction?

            C B Beggs (2003)
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              Design analysis of single-sided natural ventilation

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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Journal
                Build Environ
                Build Environ
                Building and Environment
                Elsevier Ltd.
                0360-1323
                1873-684X
                19 November 2007
                November 2008
                19 November 2007
                : 43
                : 11
                : 1805-1817
                Affiliations
                [a ]Department of Building Services Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
                [b ]DENER, Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, I-10129 Torino, Italy
                [c ]Hybrid Ventilation Centre, Aalborg University, Sohngaardsholmsvej 57, DK-9000 Aalborg, Denmark
                Author notes
                [* ]Corresponding author. Tel.: +852 2766 7781; fax: +852 2774 6146. Bejlniu@ 123456polyu.edu.hk
                Article
                S0360-1323(07)00207-7
                10.1016/j.buildenv.2007.10.023
                7115800
                32288000
                f09943ef-4435-4a90-ba30-a8f1d0be69af
                Copyright © 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

                Since January 2020 Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre - including this research content - immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active.

                History
                : 14 August 2007
                : 27 October 2007
                : 31 October 2007
                Categories
                Article

                airborne transmission,high-rise residential buildings,cascade effect,tracer gas,computational fluid dynamics (cfd)

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