The Impact of Heating, Ventilation, and Air-Conditioning Design Features on the Transmission of Viruses, Including SARS-CoV-2: Overview of Reviews

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 or SARS-CoV-2 outbreak was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization in March 2020. Almost 2 years later (early February 2022), the World Health Organization reported over 383 million cases of the disease caused by the virus, with over 5.6 million deaths worldwide. Debate regarding the routes of transmission was substantial early in the pandemic; however, airborne transmission emerged as an important consideration. Infectious airborne agents can spread within the built environment through heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems. Multiple features of HVAC systems can influence transmission (eg, ventilation, filtration, UV radiation, and humidity). Understanding how HVAC features influence airborne transmission is critical to mitigate the spread of infectious agents.

Objective: Given the airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2, an overview of reviews was conducted to understand what is already known from the scientific literature about how virus transmission may be affected by HVAC design features in the built environment.

Methods: Ovid MEDLINE and Compendex were searched from inception to January 2021. Two reviewers independently screened the titles, abstracts, and full text of potentially relevant reviews, using a priori inclusion criteria: systematic reviews examining the effects of HVAC design features on virus transmission. Two reviewers independently assessed the methodological quality using AMSTAR2.

Results: Searching identified 361 citations, of which 45 (12.5%) were potentially relevant and 7 (2%) were included. Reviews were published between 2007 and 2021 and included 47 virus studies. Two earlier reviews (2007 and 2016) of 21 studies found sufficient evidence that mechanical ventilation (airflow patterns and ventilation rates) plays a role in airborne transmission; however, both found insufficient evidence to quantify the minimum mechanical ventilation requirements. One review (2017) of 9 studies examining humidity and indoor air quality found that influenza virus survival was lowest between 40% and 80% relative humidity; the authors noted that ventilation rates were a confounding variable. Two reviews (2021) examined mitigation strategies for coronavirus transmission, finding that transmission decreased with increasing temperature and relative humidity. One review (2020) identified 14 studies examining coronavirus transmission in air-conditioning systems, finding that HVAC systems played a role in virus spread during previous coronavirus outbreaks. One review (2020) examined virus transmission interventions in public ground transportation, finding ventilation and filtration to be effective.

Conclusions: Seven reviews synthesizing 47 studies demonstrated a role for HVAC in mitigating airborne virus transmission. Ventilation, humidity, temperature, and filtration can play a role in the viability and transmission of viruses, including coronaviruses. Recommendations for minimum standards were not possible owing to few studies investigating a given HVAC parameter. This overview examining HVAC design features and their effects on the airborne transmission of viruses serves as a starting point for future systematic reviews and identifying priorities for primary research.

Keywords: COVID-19; coronavirus; environment; epidemiology; literature review; outbreak; pandemic; public health; ventilation; virus transmission.

Figure 1

Flow of studies through the selection process.

Figure 2

Network representing relevant references (gray circles) from the 7 included reviews (black circles): 1_Li_2007; 2_Luongo_2016; 3_Derby_2017; 4_Chirico_2020; 5_Zhen_2020, 6_daSilva_2021; 7_Noorimotlagh_2021. Shared References are as follows: 1_Li_2007, 2_Luongo_2016, and 4_Chirico_2020 share Wong_2004; 1_Li_2007 and 2_Luongo_2016 share Drinka_1996, Drinka 2004, and Myatt 2004; 1_Li_2007 and 4_Chirico_2020 share Li_2005_a, Li_2005_b, Yu_2004, and Yu_2005; 4_Chirico_2020 and 6_daSilva_2021 share Kim_2016; 6_daSilva_2021 and 7_Noorimotlagh_2021 share vanDoremalen_2013, Pyankov_2018, and vanDoremalen_2020.