Publication
auri Research Brief
Prevention and Control of Healthcare Associated Infections through Architecture
- No.25
- 2017.09.25
- Hit 986
- Ko, Youngho Associate Research Fellow
After the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak swept Korea in 2015, the Korean government and relevant institutes provided various countermeasures to prevent and control the outbreak of this infectious disease. Because the MERS pathogen is transmitted through the air, those countermeasures have focused on enhancing the system performances of Heating, Ventilating, and Air Conditioning (HVAC). The government also asked that healthcare facilities prepare adequate negative pressure units, including improvement of the human resource management and control programs. Those countermeasures were criticized, however, for not considering the peculiar culture of Koreans in using healthcare facilities (e.g., voluntary, sometimes obligatory, visiting his/her family or friends who are sick, and preference for visiting a general hospital rather than a clinic for an initial medical examination).