Abstract
As the World Health Organization is examining the airborne nature of COVID 19, there is past research on other airborne infections which set all encompassing guidelines. Even as more data begins to be available regarding COVID, there is proven spread of airborne disease like tuberculosis being transmitted by this route. As the summer months approach, there is an increased use of Air Conditioners in the tropical regions of the world. India, too being in this part of the world sees an active rise in the indoors which are being air conditioned to meet the thermal comfort requirements of the rising urban population which is spending a large chunk of time indoors. This is coupled with the enforced lockdown which encourages people to stay indoors to prevent the spread of infection. In such situations the use of Room air conditioner requires rethinking as they re-circulate the indoor air without any Fresh air supply into the room. To reduce heat gain and save the electric load of the room AC, people tend to seal the windows further. This paper looks at many possible ways of finding out infection spread in spaces and one of them is used to find out the probability of airborne infection spread in a typical public space. An experiment to validate the same has been conducted in a classroom setup with results analysed. Increased ventilation has been demonstrated to show a lesser probability of infection spread.
Highlights
The World Health Organization has stated that the Corona virus 2020 is not airborne in nature
There has been some contradictory speculations among the researchers in the world regarding this where it is stated that the chances of airborne transmission are plausible (Doremalen et al, 2020)
One major reason for this uncertainty may be the lack of data on the disease transmission dynamics as the priority is saving lives of the people
Summary
The World Health Organization has stated that the Corona virus 2020 is not airborne in nature. One major reason for this uncertainty may be the lack of data on the disease transmission dynamics as the priority is saving lives of the people. Even if this benefit of doubt is given to the World Health Organization, we must consider that there are proven airborne disease which exist in the world. Tuberculosis being one major infectious disease which propagates through the airborne route of transmission. This disease has a high rate of incidence amounting to 2.8 million new cases every year in India. Other disease like measles spread through the airborne route
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