Work

Inadequate Indoor Air Quality and Household Overcrowding Predispose to Life-Threatening Pulmonary Infections: Call for Action

Year: 2025

Type: editorial

Abstract: We propose that stakeholders should develop an economically sustainable, public health intervention to improve indoor air quality and to reduce overcrowding in households of underserved U.S. rural, urban and suburban residents exposed to life-threatening respiratory infections, such as caused by coronavirus disease 2019, influenza, and respiratory syncytial virus. We posit that a multifaceted community-based intervention in these households would improve social inequities, promote health justice, and reduce health care expenditure. However, this call for action would require an interdisciplinary, coordinated, and sustainable action plan devised by federal, state, county, and city government departments and agencies in close collaboration with and input from local community leaders, members, and residents.

Source: Community Health Equity Research & Policy

DOI: 10.1177/2752535x251383183

Authors: Malvika Kaul, Israel Rubinstein

Institutions: University of Illinois Chicago, Jesse Brown VA Medical Center

Language: English

Topic: Indoor Air Quality and Microbial Exposure

Subfield: Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis

Field: Environmental Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDGs: Good health and well-being, Reduced inequalities, Sustainable cities and communities

Open Access status: bronze

Funders: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Jesse Brown Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center