Airborne transmission of respiratory viruses
2021/08/26 by Chia C. Wang, Kimberly A. Prather, Josué Sznitman +6 · 1 voice · 1,581 citations
Mathematics · Medicine · Psychology · #2019-20 coronavirus outbreak #Airborne transmission #Biology #COVID-19 and Mental Health #COVID-19 epidemiological studies #Computer science #Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) #Disease #Infection Control and Ventilation #Infectious disease (medical specialty) #Medicine #Outbreak #Pandemic #Pathology #Respiratory system #Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) #Telecommunications #Transmission (telecommunications) #Virology
paper · doi:10.1126/science.abd9149
published in Science 373(6558) (American Association for the Advancement of Science)
openalex publication_date 2021/08/26 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed critical knowledge gaps in our understanding of and a need to update the traditional view of transmission pathways for respiratory viruses. The long-standing definitions of droplet and airborne transmission do not account for the mechanisms by which virus-laden respiratory droplets and aerosols travel through the air and lead to infection. In this Review, we discuss current evidence regarding the transmission of respiratory viruses by aerosols-how they are generated, transported, and deposited, as well as the factors affecting the relative contributions of droplet-spray deposition versus aerosol inhalation as modes of transmission. Improved understanding of aerosol transmission brought about by studies of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection requires a reevaluation of the major transmission pathways for other respiratory viruses, which will allow better-informed controls to reduce airborne transmission.
Citations
Cited by
- A smart mask for exhaled breath condensate harvesting and analysis
- The relative contribution of close-proximity contacts, shared classroom exposure and indoor air quality to respiratory virus transmission in schools.
- Air, surface, and wastewater surveillance of SARS-CoV-2; a multimodal evaluation of COVID-19 detection in a built environment
- Science tells us that portable air filters reduce infection risk. It's time for public health authorities to make this clear
- How covid-19 spreads: narratives, counter narratives, and social dramas
- The relative contribution of close-proximity contacts, shared classroom exposure and indoor air quality to respiratory virus transmission in schools
- Experimental analysis to quantify inactivation of microorganisms by Far-UVC irradiation in indoor environments.
- Organic components modulate the morphology of respirable aerovirology-relevant aerosols
- Virion motility of sialoglycan-cleaving respiratory viruses
- SERS technology in virus Detection: Advances, challenges, and future perspectives
- A Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment (QMRA) framework for exposure from toilet flushing using experimental aerosol concentration measurements
- Indoor bioaerosols and asthma: Overview, implications, and mitigation strategies
- Ultraviolet radiation vs air filtration to mitigate virus laden aerosol in an occupied clinical room
- A lung-specific mutational signature enables inference of viral and bacterial respiratory niche
- Risk modeling for ASHRAE Standard 241-2023 — Control of infectious aerosols
- Innate immune sensing of rotavirus by intestinal epithelial cells leads to diarrhea
- Modelling indoor airborne transmission combining architectural design and people movement using the VIRIS simulator and web app
- Modeling the risk of airborne transmission of respiratory viruses in microgravity
- Long distance airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2: rapid systematic review
- The influence of environmental factors on the diversity and structure of airborne fungal and bacterial communities
- Spotlight the public health risks of fountains
- Prioritizing isolation precautions: a patient-centered approach to infection prevention and control
- Safety and Effectiveness Assessment of Ultraviolet-C Disinfection in Aircraft Cabins
- What were the historical reasons for the resistance to recognizing airborne transmission during the COVID ‐19 pandemic?
- Hypothesis on the dust-borne atmospheric transport of Coccidioides , causative fungal pathogen for coccidioidomycosis (Valley fever)
- Airborne Transmission of SARS-CoV-2: The Contrast between Indoors and Outdoors
- AveloMask, a novel breath aerosol collection kit for airborne Mycobacterium tuberculosis : a proof-of-principle assessment
- Characterization of aerosols generated during suspected aerosol-generating procedures in healthcare settings
- How ventilation behaviour contributes to seasonality in airborne disease transmission
- Disentangling the rhythms of human activity in the built environment for airborne transmission risk: An analysis of large-scale mobility data
- Evaluation of the decontamination efficacy of a portable air cleaner using 275-nm UVC-LED radiation against airborne Coronavirus and Influenza virus
- Superdiffusion of Aerosols Emitted After Sneezing -- Nonequilibrium Statistical Mechanics Approach
- Combining Phi6 as a surrogate virus and computational large‐eddy simulations to study airborne transmission of SARS‐CoV‐2 in a restaurant
- Ambient carbon dioxide concentration correlates with SARS-CoV-2 aerostability and infection risk
- Evidence from whole genome sequencing of aerosol transmission of SARS-CoV-2 almost 5 hours after hospital room turnover
- Increasing ventilation reduces SARS-CoV-2 airborne transmission in schools: A retrospective cohort study in Italy's Marche region
- Mitigation of SARS-CoV-2 transmission at a large public university
- Microbiological and epidemiological features of respiratory syncytial virus
- Inhaled aerosol dosimetry update
- Linsey Marr [wikipedia]
- Infectious SARS-CoV-2 Is Emitted in Aerosol Particles. [europepmc]
- Common Inflammatory Mechanisms in COVID-19 and Parkinson's Diseases: The Role of Microbiome, Pharmabiotics and Postbiotics in Their Prevention. [europepmc]
- Environmental Factors Influencing COVID-19 Incidence and Severity. [europepmc]
- Understanding Rhinovirus Circulation and Impact on Illness. [europepmc]
- COVID-19: the case for aerosol transmission. [europepmc]
- Mucins Inhibit Coronavirus Infection in a Glycan-Dependent Manner. [europepmc]
- Joint Effects of Socioeconomic Position, Race/Ethnicity, and Gender on COVID-19 Mortality among Working-Age Adults in the United States. [europepmc]
- Long distance airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2: rapid systematic review. [europepmc]
- Adapt or die: how the pandemic made the shift from EBM to EBM+ more urgent. [europepmc]
- Empirical evidence on the efficiency of backward contact tracing in COVID-19. [europepmc]
- Decoding the Role of Temperature in RNA Virus Infections. [europepmc]
- What were the historical reasons for the resistance to recognizing airborne transmission during the COVID-19 pandemic? [europepmc]
- COVID-19 mortality and excess mortality among working-age residents in California, USA, by occupational sector: a longitudinal cohort analysis of mortality surveillance data. [europepmc]
- Mucosal immunity: The missing link in comprehending SARS-CoV-2 infection and transmission. [europepmc]
- Respiratory viruses: their importance and lessons learned from COVID-19. [europepmc]
- Attitudes towards Monkeypox vaccination and predictors of vaccination intentions among the US general public. [europepmc]
- Expiratory Aerosol pH: The Overlooked Driver of Airborne Virus Inactivation. [europepmc]
- Self-charging electrostatic face masks leveraging triboelectrification for prolonged air filtration. [europepmc]
- Increasing ventilation reduces SARS-CoV-2 airborne transmission in schools: A retrospective cohort study in Italy's Marche region. [europepmc]
- #COVIDisAirborne: AI-enabled multiscale computational microscopy of delta SARS-CoV-2 in a respiratory aerosol. [europepmc]
- Indoor air surveillance and factors associated with respiratory pathogen detection in community settings in Belgium. [europepmc]
- The epidemiological features of respiratory tract infection using the multiplex panels detection during COVID-19 pandemic in Shandong province, China. [europepmc]
- Masks and respirators for prevention of respiratory infections: a state of the science review. [europepmc]
- A smart mask for exhaled breath condensate harvesting and analysis. [europepmc]
- Burden of Acute Respiratory Infections Caused by Influenza Virus, Respiratory Syncytial Virus, and SARS-CoV-2 with Consideration of Older Adults: A Narrative Review. [europepmc]
Discussions
Related