Raja Singh and Anil Dewan
Tekton
Volume 7, Issue 1, March 2020
pp. 08 – 17
Raja Singh is a PhD candidate at the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi. He is working in the area of Infection Spread in Hospitals and other areas and the role of Architecture in containing it. He completed his M. Arch from NIT, Tiruchirappalli in Energy Efficiency and Sustainable Architecture. His Master’s thesis investigated the relation between naturally ventilated buildings and spread of fire in them.
raja.singh.email@gmail.com
Anil Dewan has decades of teaching and research experience in the area of Architecture. He specialises in Hospital Architecture and has been a faculty at AIIMS, Delhi and other institutes of repute across the country. His PhD was in the area of Hospital Design Standards. He is a distinguished fellow at the Institute of Hospital Engineering.
anil.anildewan1@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
Tuberculosis (TB) is an airborne disease which has a risk of being nosocomial (hospital acquired) by the patients, visitors and the healthcare workers. Healthcare guidelines should highlight the role of architects and engineers in better infection control especially through Natural Ventilation. Research on TB may also be applicable to Measles, SARS-2003 and other air-borne diseases. Hospitals provide valuable information for other public assembly buildings with possible community spread of infection like prisons, homeless shelters, schools, etc. Natural ventilation leading to increased air changes per hour creates Dilutional Ventilation which reduces infection spread as shown in prominent Thai and Peruvian studies. Our under-standing of the transmission of airborne diseases and the behaviour of micro-organisms is still an area of active research. As the Indian built environment is getting increasingly air-conditioned, hermetically sealed and energy efficient, there is scope in this lead study to create awareness among architects on this multi-disciplinary issue.
KEY WORDS
Airborne Infection Control, Natural Ventilation, Nosocomial Tuberculosis, Healthcare Architecture
