Hal Levin

Hal Levin replied to "Effect of ambient temperatures on transmission in open-air facilities" in the TB Infection Control community.

Hi Ed, Thanks for your comments. What are your thoughts on temperatures? Temperature seems to me to be potentially an important factor. Since many of the field hospitals described in the AJPH article were erected in the fall and winter, presumably temperatures were quite low, far lower than in modern housing and healthcare facilities. In my own lifetime I have seen a significant rise in the target temperatures for residential settings, perhaps as much as ...

Hal Levin started a discussion "Effect of ambient temperatures on transmission in open-air facilities" in the TB Infection Control community.

Dear all, Today there are many physicians who attribute chronic respiratory infections to cold and/or damp indoor conditions. From my reading of an article recently published in the American Journal of Public Health, “The Open-Air Treatment of Pandemic Influenza” (Hobday and Cason, 2009: http://ajph.aphapublications.org/cgi/reprint/99/S2/S236), it seems that we now attempt to recreate indoors some of the beneficial outdoor conditions through the use of solariums, high outdoor air ventilation rates, and upper room air UVGI. What ...

Hal Levin started a discussion "Natural Ventilation for Infection Control in Health-Care Settings, WHO 2009" in the TB Infection Control community.

These are the latest WHO guidelines for natural ventilation for infection control in health-care settings. I've included below the four main recommendations featured in the executive summary. Main recommendations 1. To help prevent airborne infections, adequate ventilation in health-care facilities in all patient-care areas is necessary. Overall ranking: Strong recommendation 2. For natural ventilation, the following minimum hourly averaged ventilation rates should be provided: –– 160 l/s/patient (hourly average ventilation rate) for airborne precaution rooms ...