Ventilation and laboratory confirmed acute respiratory infection (ARI) rates in college residence halls in College Park, Maryland.

ABSTRACT: Strategies to protect building occupants from the risk of acute respiratory infection (ARI) need to consider ventilation for its ability to dilute and remove indoor bioaerosols. Prior studies have described an association of increased self-reported colds and influenza-like symptoms with low ventilation but have not combined rigorous characterization of ventilation with assessment of laboratory confirmed infections. We report a study designed to fill this gap. We followed laboratory confirmed ARI rates and measured CO₂ concentrations for four months during the winter-spring of 2018 in two campus residence halls: (1) a high ventilation building (HVB) with a dedicated outdoor air system that supplies 100% of outside air to each dormitory room, and (2) a low ventilation building (LV

SUBMITTER: Zhu S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7112667 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature