Microbial Air Quality in Healthcare Facilities

Lucia Bonadonna, Rossella Briancesco, Anna Maria Coccia, Pierluigi Meloni, Giuseppina La Rosa and Umberto Moscato
Additional contact information
Lucia Bonadonna: Department of Environment and Health, Italian National Institute of Health, 00161 Rome, Italy
Rossella Briancesco: Department of Environment and Health, Italian National Institute of Health, 00161 Rome, Italy
Anna Maria Coccia: Department of Environment and Health, Italian National Institute of Health, 00161 Rome, Italy
Pierluigi Meloni: Department of Environment and Health, Italian National Institute of Health, 00161 Rome, Italy
Giuseppina La Rosa: Department of Environment and Health, Italian National Institute of Health, 00161 Rome, Italy
Umberto Moscato: Department of Woman and Child Health and Public Health, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli IRCCS, 00168 Rome, Italy

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 12, 1-19

Abstract: There is increasing evidence that indoor air quality and contaminated surfaces provide an important potential source for transmission of pathogens in hospitals. Airborne hospital microorganisms are apparently harmless to healthy people. Nevertheless, healthcare settings are characterized by different environmental critical conditions and high infective risk, mainly due to the compromised immunologic conditions of the patients that make them more vulnerable to infections. Thus, spread, survival and persistence of microbial communities are important factors in hospital environments affecting health of inpatients as well as of medical and nursing staff. In this paper, airborne and aerosolized microorganisms and their presence in hospital environments are taken into consideration, and the factors that collectively contribute to defining the infection risk in these facilities are illustrated.

Keywords: healthcare facilities; indoor air; microbial contamination; surface contamination (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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