Airborne precautions are required to protect against airborne transmission of infectious agents.
Diseases requiring airborne precautions include, but are not limited to: Measles, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Varicella (chickenpox), and Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
Preventing airborne transmission requires personal respiratory protection and special ventilation and air handling.
How airborne transmission occurs:
Airborne transmission occurs through the dissemination of either:
- airborne droplet nuclei (small-particles [5 micrograms or smaller] of evaporated droplets containing microorganisms that remain suspended in the air for long periods of time) or
- dust particles that contain an infectious agent
Microorganisms carried by the airborne route can be widely dispersed by air currents and may become inhaled by a susceptible host in the same room or over a long distance form the source patient – depending on environmental factors such as temperature and ventilation.
Airborne precautions include:
- Standard Precautions
PLUS
- Personal respiratory protection
- N95 respirator
Prior fit-testing that must be repeated annually and fit-check / seal-check prior to each use.
or
- Powered Air-Purifying Respirator (PAPR)
- N95 respirator
- Airborne Infection Isolation Room (AIIR)
- At a minimum, AIIR rooms must:
- Provide negative pressure room with a minimum of 6 air exchanges per hour
- Exhaust directly to the outside or through HEPA (High Efficiency Particulate Air) filtration
- At a minimum, AIIR rooms must:
Airborne precautions apply to patients known or suspected to be infected with microorganisms transmitted by airborne droplet nuclei.