A Study on the Contaminant Dispersion from Isolation Ward under Abnormal Operation of Facilities

Abstract

Due to the recent outbreaks of infectious diseases, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Influenza and Ebola, isolation facilities have played an important role to prevent infectious diseases from spreading at initial stage. An isolation ward is a facility to isolate patients physically and to care them safely. One way to isolate a patient physically is to build a negative pressure isolation facility. However, unexpected failure or misuse of such facility makes it difficult to maintain negative pressure and eventually causes secondary infection, leaking the infectious pathogen to outside of the isolation ward. This study identifies the amount and velocity of leakage air from a patient ward by tracer gas experiment under abnormal operations of an isolation facility. In addition, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) allowed us to observe the outflow mechanism of pollutant. The results show that abnormal operations of a facility spreads pathogens to neighboring areas immediately and timely actions should be prepared against them.

Design characteristics on the indoor and outdoor air environments of the COVID-19 emergency hospital

“…The normal operation of ventilation system is the premise to ensure the airflow isolation effect. Park J Y et al conducted a tracer gas experimental study, and the results showed that the failure or abnormal operation of ventilation equipment in the isolation ward would lead to the spread of infectious bacteria to the human body and the risk of infection [ 38 ]. Therefore, the ventilation system needed to be equipped with an alarm system and a reasonable control program.…”

Current and potential approaches on assessing airflow and particle dispersion in healthcare facilities: a systematic review

“…Due to its provision, it must remain closed continually. To test the hypothesis, Park and Sung ( 2015 ) selected a patient ward to determine the amount of leakage air through tracer gas tests and CFD methods. Chow et al ( 2006 ) numerically assessed the effects of the pressure differential between the inside and outside of an operating room on the airflow characteristics.…”