Reducing hospital infections

Assessing the risk to healthcare workers of hospital-acquired infection from patients infected with aerosol-transmissible pathogens

Healthcare workers caring for patients infected with emerging and re-emerging viruses are acutely aware of the risks they face, particularly through aerosol transmission.

A team of researchers was commissioned to investigate these risks to see how they can be reduced by optimising ventilation methods as part of an engineering control approach to infection control.

The researchers, from Turku University (TUAS) and University Hospitals of Leicester, examined the effects of two supply air distributions on the healthcare worker exposure to the patient-exhaled air.

The study was based on laboratory experiments that were carried out in a full-scale isolation room model at TUAS Indoor Environment Laboratory.