Natural ventilation reduces high TB transmission risk in traditional homes in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Transmission of drug susceptible and drug resistant TB occurs in health care facilities, and community and households settings, particularly in highly prevalent TB and HIV areas. There is a paucity of data regarding factors that may affect TB transmission risk in household settings. We evaluated air...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:BMC infectious diseases 2013-07, Vol.13 (1), p.300-300, Article 300
Main Authors: Lygizos, Melissa, Shenoi, Sheela V, Brooks, Ralph P, Bhushan, Ambika, Brust, James C M, Zelterman, Daniel, Deng, Yanhong, Northrup, Veronika, Moll, Anthony P, Friedland, Gerald H
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome
AIDS
Air flow
Air Movements
Analysis
Analysis of Variance
Carbon dioxide
Charitable foundations
Community
Disease transmission
Ferries
Health facilities
HIV
Households
Housing - standards
Human immunodeficiency virus
Humans
Medicine
Mortality
Multivariate Analysis
Public health
Risk
Risk Factors
Rural areas
South Africa - epidemiology
Temperature
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis - epidemiology
Tuberculosis - prevention & control
Tuberculosis - transmission
Ventilation
Ventilation - methods
Windows & doors
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Summary:Transmission of drug susceptible and drug resistant TB occurs in health care facilities, and community and households settings, particularly in highly prevalent TB and HIV areas. There is a paucity of data regarding factors that may affect TB transmission risk in household settings. We evaluated air exchange and the impact of natural ventilation on estimated TB transmission risk in traditional Zulu homes in rural South Africa. We utilized a carbon dioxide decay technique to measure ventilation in air changes per hour (ACH). We evaluated predominant home types to determine factors affecting ACH and used the Wells-Riley equation to estimate TB transmission risk. Two hundred eighteen ventilation measurements were taken in 24 traditional homes. All had low ventilation at baseline when windows were closed (mean ACH = 3, SD = 3.0), with estimated TB transmission risk of 55.4% over a ten hour period of exposure to an infectious TB patient. There was significant improvement with opening windows and door, reaching a mean ACH of 20 (SD = 13.1, p 
ISSN:1471-2334
1471-2334
DOI:10.1186/1471-2334-13-300