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Reducing Risk of Airborne Transmitted Infection in Hospitals by Use of Hospital Curtains

Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong, China

M.K.H. Leung

Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong, China, mkhleung{at}hku.hk

D.Y.C. Leung

Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong, China

Y. Li

Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong, China

P.L. Yuen

Hospital Authority, Hong Kong, China

An in-patient suffering from an airborne infectious disease should be properly isolated in a negative-pressure isolation room to prevent hospital-acquired infection. However, before the infectious status is identified by clinical diagnosis, the patient may be assigned to stay with others in a hospital ward with multiple beds. Under these circumstances, there may be a risk of infection of the neighboring patients. Therefore, reasonable infection control measures should be implemented in multi-bed hospital wards, intensive care units, among others. The use of hospital curtains as physical barriers against transmission of disease is potentially a simple but effective method to reduce the risk of infection. In this investigation, the effectiveness of hospital curtains in prevention against airborne transmission of diseases in hospital rooms was evaluated by numerical modeling analysis. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD)-statistical hybrid modeling method, which was validated by tracer gas measurements, was employed to determine the transient dispersion of airborne contaminants. It was found that among all the case studies, the use of curtains between two beds could reduce the peak concentration for each individual neighboring patient in a bioaerosol dispersion process. A curtain fully extended to the length of a bed yielded significantly higher protection than a partially extended curtain and the reduction in peak concentration could be as much as 65%.

Key Words: Hospital curtains • Airborne transmission • Infection control • CFD-statistical hybrid model

Indoor and Built Environment, Vol. 17, No. 3, 252-259 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/1420326X08091957


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