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SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Environ. Health
Sec. Air Quality and Health
Volume 4 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fenvh.2025.1548272
This article is part of the Research Topic Effect of HVAC Systems on Pathogen Transmission and Indoor Air Quality in Buildings View all articles
The effectiveness of air-cleaning technologies against COVID-19 transmission in healthcare settings
Provisionally accepted
ENEMBE OKOKON 1,2*
Moriam Chibuzor 3 Chisom Ezema 1
Moses Bernard 1 Veronica Barde 1 Angela Oyo-Ita 1,3 Martin Meremikwu 1,3- 1 University of Calabar, Calabar, Nigeria
- 2 University of Canberra, Canberra, Australia
- 3 University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, Calabar, Nigeria
The healthcare setting is a high-transmission-risk environment for COVID-19. Attending clinicians and patients are at risk of infection if measures are not established to secure the microbial safety of the health facility. Air cleaning technologies may deliver a safer clinical environment by depleting airborne viral concentrations.This systematic review aims to assess the effectiveness of air-cleaning methods in preventing COVID-19 transmission in health facilities and the effectiveness of air cleaning rated by microbial depletion.This study is a rapid systematic review.No study assessed COVID-19 transmission relative to the air cleaning methods. HEPA filtration produced a more rapid and thorough removal of aerosols from health facilities. HEPA filtration showed mixed performance in removing COVID-19 viral RNA from a routine care ward and an intensive care unit (ICU). Meta-analyses could not be conducted due to dissimilarities in included studies.The reviewed papers demonstrate that HEPA filtration hastens the depletion of aerosols from the indoor space in the health facility. Further translation of this finding to prevent COVID-19 transmission should assume the relevance of room occupancy density, virus-free outdoor air supply, recirculated filtered air, virus source strength, number of sources, and the use of facemasks by health workers and visitors to the health facility.
Keywords: Air cleaning, Aerosols, COVID-19, Health facility, HEPA filter, Indoor transmission
Received: 19 Dec 2024; Accepted: 07 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 OKOKON, Chibuzor, Ezema, Bernard, Barde, Oyo-Ita and Meremikwu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
ENEMBE OKOKON, University of Calabar, Calabar, Nigeria
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