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Air Quality and Healthcare Associated Infections
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Air Quality and Healthcare Associated Infections

A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2021) | Viewed by 9269

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Maria Teresa Montagna

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Biomedical Science and Human Oncology, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Piazza G. Cesare 11, 70124 Bari, Italy
Interests: hygiene and public health; foodborne and waterborne diseases; legionella; environmental health; wastewater management
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Christian Napoli

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Medical Surgical Sciences and Translational Medicine, “Sapienza” University of Rome, 00185 Rome, Italy
Interests: COVID-19 vaccination acceptance; COVID-19 vaccination hesitancy; lockdown; knowledges; behaviours; COVID-19; legionella; legionellosis; migrants; migrant's health; legionnaires' disease; chikungunya; dengue
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Giusy Diella

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Interdisciplinary Department of Medicine, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Piazza G. Cesare 11, 70124 Bari, Italy
Interests: infectious diseases; legionellosis; contaminants; disinfectants; health effects of air quality; waterborne diseases; foodborne diseases
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In recent decades, the role of air as a vehicle of infection has been the subject of much interest and debate, especially in healthcare facilities.

Air quality is influenced by the presence of biological, chemical, and particulate contaminants that may be present both in outdoor and indoor environments. In healthcare facilities, these contaminants may vary according to the type and age of the building, the construction area, the type of hospitalized patients, and the ventilation systems adopted. In particular, some areas, such as operating theatres, intensive care units, and isolation rooms, require high filtration efficiency to protect patients, staff, and visitors, while other areas require the total absence of gaseous and chemical contaminants.

For this reason, air quality and the absence of environmental risk factors within healthcare facilities are the first requirements for the safety of patients and healthcare professionals.

The goal of this Special Issue titled "Air Quality- and Healthcare-Associated Infections " is to provide, through a multidisciplinary approach, clear information of proven scientific evidence aimed at evaluating the complexity of air quality related to healthcare facilities, namely,

  1. Microbial, chemical, and physical contamination in indoor/outdoor environments;
  2. The epidemiology of healthcare-associated infections (HAI)
  3. The quality of ventilation systems in healthcare facilities;
  4. Good practice of hygiene, disinfection procedures, and protocols in routine environmental reclamation practices.

Prof. Maria Teresa Montagna
Prof. Christian Napoli
Dr. Giusy Diella
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • healthcare-associated infections
  • air quality
  • bioaerosol
  • microbial, chemical, and physical contamination
  • ventilation systems
  • disinfection

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.

Published Papers (2 papers)

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12 pages, 1681 KiB  
Article
Microbial Air Monitoring in Turbulent Airflow Operating Theatres: Is It Possible to Calculate and Hypothesize New Benchmarks for Microbial Air Load?
by Maria Luisa Cristina, Anna Maria Spagnolo, Gianluca Ottria, Elisa Schinca, Chiara Dupont, Alessio Carbone, Martino Oliva and Marina Sartini
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(19), 10379; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph181910379 - 2 Oct 2021
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2519
Abstract
Multiple studies have demonstrated the presence of microorganisms commonly associated with surgical site infections (SSIs), in the air within the operating theatre (OT). In some countries such Italy, the limit of microbial concentration in the air for OT with turbulent airflows is 35 [...] Read more.
Multiple studies have demonstrated the presence of microorganisms commonly associated with surgical site infections (SSIs), in the air within the operating theatre (OT). In some countries such Italy, the limit of microbial concentration in the air for OT with turbulent airflows is 35 CFU/m3 for an empty OT and 180 CFU/m3 during activity. This study aims to hypothesize new benchmarks for the airborne microbial load in turbulent airflow operating theatres in operational and at rest conditions using the percentile distribution of data through a 17-year environmental monitoring campaign in various Italian hospitals that implemented a continuous quality improvement policy. The quartile distribution analysis has shown how in operational and at rest conditions, 75% of the values were below 110 CFU/m3 and 18 CFU/m3, respectively, which can be considered a new benchmark for the monitored OTs. During the initial stages of the monitoring campaign, 28.14% of the concentration values in operational conditions and 29.29% of the values in at rest conditions did not conform to the Italian guidelines’ reference values. In contrast, during the last 5 years, all values in both conditions conformed to the reference values and 98.94% of these values were below the new benchmarks. Continuous improvement has allowed contamination to be reduced to levels well below the current reference values. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Air Quality and Healthcare Associated Infections)
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Review

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19 pages, 1380 KiB  
Review
Microbial Air Quality in Healthcare Facilities
by Lucia Bonadonna, Rossella Briancesco, Anna Maria Coccia, Pierluigi Meloni, Giuseppina La Rosa and Umberto Moscato
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(12), 6226; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18126226 - 9 Jun 2021
Cited by 18 | Viewed by 5549
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 [...] Read more.
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. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Air Quality and Healthcare Associated Infections)
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