Natural Ventilation for Infection Control in Health-Care Settings

The purpose of this latest guideline is twofold:

• to promote natural ventilation design for infection control in health care (Part 1); and
• to describe the basic principles of how to design, construct, operate and maintain an effective natural ventilation system for infection control (Part 2).

This guideline is primarily developed for engineers and architects who design or operate health-care facilities. The guideline is also useful for health-care workers, particularly infection-control professionals who work in health-care facilities. The guideline recognizes that the hospital designers, operators and health-care workers need to work together for effective infection control.

This guideline applies to diseases that can be transmitted through fine droplets or through droplet nuclei. The guideline describes how an airborne precaution room and its adjacent areas can be designed to provide natural ventilation control of infections. However, this guideline does not include thorough descriptions for other infection-prevention and control measures.