ReviewEnvironmental research2021
Addressing COVID-19 contagion through the HVAC systems by reviewing indoor airborne nature of infectious microbes: Will an innovative air recirculation concept provide a practical solution?
Review in Environmental research, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- A review of strategies and their effectiveness in reducing indoor airborne transmission and improving indoor air quality.Environmental research · 2022Pooled it
- Plasma Photocatalysis: A Novel Approach for Enhanced Air Disinfection in Centralised Ventilation Systems.Materials (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Wastewater Based Measures of COVID-19 and Associations with Children's Absenteeism at Grade Schools.The Science of the total environment · 2025Article
- An interdisciplinary perspective of the built-environment microbiome.FEMS microbiology ecology · 2025Review
- Hospital-borne hazardous air pollutants and air cleaning strategies amid the surge of SARS-CoV-2 new variants.Heliyon · 2024Review
- Development of optimal indoor air disinfection and ventilation protocols for airborne infectious diseases.PloS one · 2024Article
- Analysis on the energy efficiency, thermal performance and infection intervention characteristics of interactive cascade ventilation (ICV).Journal of building engineering · 2023Article
- Implemented indoor airborne transmission mitigation strategies during COVID-19: a systematic review.Journal of environmental health science & engineering · 2023Review
- Evaluation of indoor environmental quality, personal cumulative exposure dose, and aerosol transmission risk levels inside urban buses in Dalian, China.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2023Article
- Emerging trends in direct air capture of CORSC advances · 2023Review
- Integrated system of exhaust air heat pump and advanced air distribution for energy-efficient provision of outdoor air.Applied thermal engineering · 2022Article
- Coronavirus outbreaks and infection prevention in dentistry: a narrative review.Canadian journal of dental hygiene : CJDH = Journal canadien de l'hygiene dentaire : JCHD · 2022Review
- Cumulative effects of air pollution and climate drivers on COVID-19 multiwaves in Bucharest, Romania.Process safety and environmental protection : transactions of the Institution of Chemical Engineers, Part B · 2022Article
- Impacts of exposure to air pollution, radon and climate drivers on the COVID-19 pandemic in Bucharest, Romania: A time series study.Environmental research · 2022Observational
- Optimized mechanism for fast removal of infectious pathogen-laden aerosols in the negative-pressure unit.Journal of hazardous materials · 2022Article
- A spatiotemporally resolved infection risk model for airborne transmission of COVID-19 variants in indoor spaces.The Science of the total environment · 2022Article
- Review of component designs for post-COVID-19 HVAC systems: possibilities and challenges.Heliyon · 2022Article
- Prediction and control of aerosol transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in ventilated context: from source to receptor.Sustainable cities and society · 2022Article
- Hospital indoor air quality and its relationships with building design, building operation, and occupant-related factors: A mini-review.Frontiers in public health · 2022Review
- Water-based air purifier with ventilation fan system: a novel approach for cleaning indoor/outdoor transitional air during the pandemic.SN applied sciences · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
As the world continues to grapple with the reality of coronavirus disease, global research communities are racing to develop practical solutions to adjust to the new challenges. One such challenge is the control of indoor air quality in the COVID-19 era and beyond. Since COVID-19 became a global pandemic, the "super spread" of the virus has continued to amaze policymakers despite measures put in place by public health officials to sensitize the general public on the need for social distancing, personal hygiene, etc. In this work, we have reviewed the literature to demonstrate, by investigating the historical and present circumstances, that indoor spread of infectious diseases may be assisted by the conditions of the HVAC systems. While little consideration has been given to the possibility of indoor airborne transmission of the virus, the available reports have demonstrated that the virus, with average aerodynamic diameter up to 80-120 nm, is viable as aerosol in indoor atmosphere for more than 3 h, and its spread may be assisted by the HVAC systems. Having reviewed the vulnerability of the conventional ventilation systems, we recommend innovative air circulation concept supported by the use of UVGI in combination with nanoporous air filter to combat the spread of SARS-CoV-2 and other harmful microbes in enclosed spaces.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.