Airborne transmission is an infection route for many pathogens such as Tuberculosis (TB), Influenza and more recently SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19). With respiratory diseases already being a major contributor to pressure on hospital systems such as the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK, it is especially important to minimise the transmission of nosocomial infections through the airborne route.

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of understanding the factors which influence airborne transmission and how we manage the associated risk.

This paper, from theme 2 researchers of the PROTECT NCS, discusses how the team used an adaptation of the Wells–Riley model to develop a transient multi-zonal approach to model the concentration of pathogen in the air and infection risk in a hospital scenario.

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