Date Issued: 16 September 2009

The spread of swine flu and other infectious diseases could be dramatically reduced by revolutionising the way that the places we live in are designed and built.

They’re everywhere: micro-organisms from a typical hand print as revealed by ‘blood agar’, a substance used by scientists to detect and distinguish pathogens

Dr Ka man Lai of HIRC and researcher Hector Altamirano-Medina

That’s the view of experts investigating how the micro-organisms that cause disease behave in buildings and associated infrastructure.

Funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), researchers at the new ‘Healthy Infrastructure Research Centre’ (HIRC), at University College London, are studying the behaviour of pathogens* in places like hospitals and schools and drainage and sewage systems.

HIRC aims to:

• spot characteristics in building/infrastructure design that encourage diseases to spread
  
  
• pinpoint changes that can be made to infrastructure (in design, materials, maintenance etc) to restrict pathogens’ ability to survive and move around there.

“It’s well known that the infrastructure we rely on has an impact on our health, but understanding in this area is very limited,” says Dr Ka man Lai, who is leading the initiative. “HIRC will therefore explore the role played by air conditioning, ventilation systems, drains, pipes, and the size and layout of rooms, for example, in the transmission of airborne diseases and diseases spread via surface contact.

“My vision is that, within the next 10 years, we will completely transform infrastructure function, design and construction and so create a new disease-resistant environment fit for the 21st century. We hope that, within 3 years, HIRC will start generating insights and recommendations leading directly to healthier infrastructure.”

Every year, infectious diseases (such as seasonal flu, tuberculosis, hospital ‘superbugs’ and most recently swine flu) affect millions of people around the world. Their spread can be affected by many factors, including temperature, humidity, the presence of surfaces where pathogens can linger and the availability of ‘pathways’ enabling them to move around freely.

As well as investigating how new infrastructure can restrict disease transmission, HIRC will investigate ways of making old infrastructure healthier**. It will also evaluate the precise impact that simple steps such as improving ventilation (e.g. by opening more windows) and understanding the influence hand-washing facilities could have in stopping the spread of pathogens.

Teaming up with academics and companies around the world, four core researchers will work at HIRC. They specialise in architecture and building engineering, environmental microbiology, technology and innovation, and people and behaviour.

The result of HIRC’s work could be a significant reduction in the number of people infected with debilitating and sometimes potentially dangerous diseases – cutting the burden on healthcare resources and the number of working days lost to sickness.

HIRC has already started an initiative with the North East & North Central London Health Protection Unit to investigate the relationship between physical environment and tuberculosis transmission in an office. HIRC is also working with Great Ormond Street Hospital to improve some infection control practices.

Notes for Editors

The 5-year project ‘Infrastructure and 21st Century Infectious Diseases’ began in April 2009 and will receive EPSRC funding of just over £1 million.

*A pathogen is a micro-organism that causes disease.

** This is an important issue. In 2003, for example, a poorly maintained drainage system in a Hong Kong housing estate helped to spread the SARS virus, causing 42 deaths on the estate.

Since the project started, a new office and a new laboratory have been built for HIRC within UCL’s Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering. The laboratory is equipped with an environmental chamber which will be fitted with different sets of aerosolisation instruments and aerosol samplers. Areas are also designated for molecular microbiology and environmental health engineering research. By combining these facilities together, it will be possible to understand the evolution and ecology of micro-organisms in physical environments and thus the implications of infrastructure for infection transmission in urban environments.  

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is the UK’s main agency for funding research in engineering and the physical sciences. The EPSRC invests around £850 million a year in research and postgraduate training, to help the nation handle the next generation of technological change. The areas covered range from information technology to structural engineering, and mathematics to materials science. This research forms the basis for future economic development in the UK and improvements for everyone’s health, lifestyle and culture. EPSRC also actively promotes public awareness of science and engineering. EPSRC works alongside other Research Councils with responsibility for other areas of research. The Research Councils work collectively on issues of common concern via Research Councils UK.

For more information, contact:

Dr Ka man Lai (pronounced Kah-man-lie), Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, University College London, Tel: 020 7679 1368, E-mail: k.lai@ucl.ac.uk

Images (‘DrLai.jpg’ and ‘handprint.jpg’)are available from the EPSRC Press Office, e-mail: pressoffice@epsrc.ac.uk, tel: 01793 444404.