The aerodynamic behaviour of respiratory aerosols

Introduction / objectives Hospital acquired infections (HAIs) claim on average 90,000 lives each year in the U.S., nearly three times the number of annual highway deaths. Although fewer than 15% of HAIs are directly attributable to airborne transmission, more than a third may be caused by surface microbes aerosolized by the movement of air from building systems, people and equipment. As a result, a study was devised to use a synthetic respiratory aerosol to track the movement airborne contagion with respect to various environmental conditions in a healthcare environment.