This paper reports the measurement results of indoor airborne microbial contamination in 9 hospital waiting rooms. Based on the measurement results, the design method on an air conditioning system to carry out improvement in the indoor air quality, especially in airborne microbes, was discussed from the view point of reducing the risk of mutual infection in hospitals. The main findings obtained from this study are as follows. Since the major sources of airborne fungi in waiting rooms are from the outdoor, it is important to appropriately maintain hospital environment in order to prevent the multiplication of fungi. On the other hand, as the major sources of the airborne bacteria in waiting rooms are patients themselves, it is necessary to reduce the mutual infection risk in hospitals by controlling indoor airborne bacteria contamination. Since the present performance of the air conditioning system is inadequate for filtrating and diluting indoor airborne microbes during reception period of a waiting room, indoor airborne bacteria concentration may become remarkably high. From the standpoint of reduction of mutual infections, it is important to install high performance equipment.
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