ArticleThe international journal of tuberculosis and lung disease : the official journal of the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease2016
Measuring ventilation and modelling M. tuberculosis transmission in indoor congregate settings, rural KwaZulu-Natal.
Article in The international journal of tuberculosis and lung disease : the official journal of the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers.
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Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 27 citations in OpenAlex.
- Mitigating indoor risk of airborne infections using COJournal of environmental health science & engineering · 2026Article
- Estimating Mycobacterium tuberculosis transmission in a South African clinic: Spatiotemporal model based on person movements.PLoS computational biology · 2025Article
- Within-country heterogeneity in patterns of social contact relevant for tuberculosis infection transmission, prevention, and care.PLOS global public health · 2025Article
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- Airborne transmission risks of tuberculosis and COVID-19 in schools in South Africa, Switzerland, and Tanzania: Modeling of environmental data.PLOS global public health · 2024Article
- Time to change the way we think about tuberculosis infection prevention and control in health facilities: insights from recent research.Antimicrobial stewardship & healthcare epidemiology : ASHE · 2023Article
- Improving Estimates of Social Contact Patterns for Airborne Transmission of Respiratory Pathogens.Emerging infectious diseases · 2022Article
- Importance of ventilation and occupancy to Mycobacterium tuberculosis transmission rates in congregate settings.BMC public health · 2022Article
- Estimating Tuberculosis Transmission Risks in a Primary Care Clinic in South Africa: Modeling of Environmental and Clinical Data.The Journal of infectious diseases · 2022Article
- Article
- Direct estimates of absolute ventilation and estimated Mycobacterium tuberculosis transmission risk in clinics in South Africa.PLOS global public health · 2022Article
- Estimating ventilation rates in rooms with varying occupancy levels: Relevance for reducing transmission risk of airborne pathogens.PloS one · 2021Article
- Effect of ventilation improvement during a tuberculosis outbreak in underventilated university buildings.Indoor air · 2020Article
- Public Health Response to Tuberculosis Outbreak among Persons Experiencing Homelessness, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, 2017-2018.Emerging infectious diseases · 2020Article
- Building and indoor environmental quality assessment of Nigerian primary schools: A pilot study.Indoor air · 2019Article
- Transmission of drug-resistant tuberculosis in HIV-endemic settings.The Lancet. Infectious diseases · 2019Review
- Where is tuberculosis transmission happening? Insights from the literature, new tools to study transmission and implications for the elimination of tuberculosis.Respirology (Carlton, Vic.) · 2018Review
- An easy tool to assess ventilation in health facilities as part of air-borne transmission prevention: a cross-sectional survey from Uganda.BMC infectious diseases · 2017Article
- Mapping sites of high TB transmission risk: Integrating the shared air and social behaviour of TB cases and adolescents in a South African township.The Science of the total environment · 2017Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
settingMolecular epidemiology suggests that most Mycobacterium tuberculosis transmission in high-burden settings occurs outside the home.
objectiveTo estimate the risk of M. tuberculosis transmission inside public buildings in a high TB burden community in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
designCarbon dioxide (CO2) sensors were placed inside eight public buildings. Measurements were used with observations of occupancy to estimate infection risk using an adaptation of the Wells-Riley equation. Ventilation modelling using CONTAM was used to examine the impact of low-cost retrofits on transmission in a health clinic.
resultsMeasurements indicate that infection risk in the church, classroom and clinic waiting room would be high with typical ventilation, occupancy levels and visit durations. For example, we estimated that health care workers in a clinic waiting room had a 16.9-24.5% annual risk of M. tuberculosis infection. Modelling results indicate that the simple addition of two new windows allowing for cross-ventilation, at a cost of US$330, would reduce the annual risk to health care workers by 57%.
conclusionsResults indicate that public buildings in this community have a range of ventilation and occupancy characteristics that may influence transmission risks. Simple retrofits may result in dramatic reductions in M. tuberculosis transmission, and intervention studies should therefore be considered.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.