Correlating indoor and outdoor temperature and humidity in a sample of buildings in tropical climates |
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| Authors: | Jin Pan Julian Tang Miguela Caniza Jean-Michel Heraud Evelyn Koay Hong Kai Lee Chun Kiat Lee Yuguo Li Alejandra Nava Ruiz Carlos Francisco Santillan-Salas Linsey C Marr |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Civil and Environmental Engineering, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA;2. Infection, Immunity and Inflammation, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK;3. Global Infectious Diseases Program, Department of Infectious Diseases, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, TN, USA;4. Virology Unit, Institut Pasteur de Madagascar, Antananarivo, Madagascar;5. Department of Pathology, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore City, Singapore;6. Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore City, Singapore;7. Department of Laboratory Medicine, National University Health System, Singapore City, Singapore;8. Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China;9. Hospital de Especialidades Pediátricas, Tuxtla Gutiérrez Chiapas, México;10. Instituto Nacional de Salud del Niño San Borja, Lima, Peru |
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| Abstract: | The incidence of several respiratory viral infections has been shown to be related to climate. Because humans spend most of their time indoors, measures of indoor climate, rather than outdoor climate, may be better predictors of disease incidence and transmission. Therefore, understanding the relationship between indoor and outdoor climate will help illuminate their influence on the seasonality of diseases caused by respiratory viruses. Indoor-outdoor relationships between temperature and humidity have been documented in temperate regions, but little information is available for tropical regions, where seasonal patterns of respiratory viral diseases differ. We have examined indoor-outdoor correlations of temperature, relative humidity (RH), and absolute humidity (AH) over a 1-year period in each of seven tropical cities. Across all cities, the average monthly indoor temperature was 25 ± 3°C (mean ± standard deviation) with a range of 20–30°C. The average monthly indoor RH was 66 ± 9% with a range of 50–78%, and the average monthly indoor AH was 15 ± 3 g/m3 with a range of 10–23 g/m3. Indoor AH and RH were linearly correlated with outdoor AH when the air conditioning (AC) was off, suggesting that outdoor AH may be a good proxy of indoor humidity in the absence of AC. All indoor measurements were more strongly correlated with outdoor measurements as distance from the equator increased. Such correlations were weaker during the wet season, especially when AC was in operation. These correlations will provide insight for assessing the seasonality of respiratory viral infections using outdoor climate data, which is more widely available than indoor data, even though transmission of these diseases mainly occurs indoors. |
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| Keywords: | climate humidity indoor outdoor respiratory virus temperature |
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