Negative room pressure

Negative room pressure is an isolation technique used in hospitals and medical centers to prevent cross-contamination from room to room.^[1]^[2] It includes a ventilation that generates negative pressure (pressure lower than that of the surroundings) to allow air to flow into the isolation room but not escape from the room, as air will naturally flow from areas with higher pressure to areas with lower pressure, thereby preventing contaminated air from escaping the room. This technique is used to isolate patients with airborne contagious diseases such as: influenza (flu), measles, chickenpox, tuberculosis (TB), severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV), Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS-CoV), and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).^[3]^[4]

^ Negative Room Pressure to Prevent Cross-Contamination, Clean Air Solutions, Camil Farr, Archived 2016-03-10 at the Wayback MachineRetrieved 2010-03-10.
^ Isolation Rooms & Pressurization Control Archived 2010-03-04 at the Wayback Machine, Penn State Department of Architectural Engineering, © 2008 The Pennsylvania State University. Retrieved 2010-03-10.^{[dead link]}
^ Negative Pressure Isolation Rooms & Tuberculosis (TB) Isolation Rooms, AirMont Inc. Retrieved 2010-03-10. Archived 2014-01-17 at the Wayback Machine
^ Hoffman, P. N.; Weinbren, M. J.; Stuart, S. A. (2004). "A practical lesson in negative-pressure isolation ventilation". The Journal of Hospital Infection. 57 (4): 345–6. doi:10.1016/j.jhin.2004.04.013. PMID 15262397.