COVID-19: the case for aerosol transmission.

Interface Focus

Department of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Published: April 2022

The COVID-19 pandemic is the most severe pandemic caused by a respiratory virus since the 1918 influenza pandemic. As is the case with other respiratory viruses, three modes of transmission have been invoked: contact (direct and through fomites), large droplets and aerosols. This narrative review makes the case that aerosol transmission is an important mode for COVID-19, through reviewing studies about bioaerosol physiology, detection of infectious SARS-CoV-2 in exhaled bioaerosols, prolonged SARS-CoV-2 infectivity persistence in aerosols created in the laboratory, detection of SARS-CoV-2 in air samples, investigation of outbreaks with manifest involvement of aerosols, and animal model experiments. SARS-CoV-2 joins influenza A virus as a virus with proven pandemic capacity that can be spread by the aerosol route. This has profound implications for the control of the current pandemic and for future pandemic preparedness.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8831082PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsfs.2021.0072DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

case aerosol
8
aerosol transmission
8
pandemic
6
covid-19 case
4
transmission covid-19
4
covid-19 pandemic
4
pandemic severe
4
severe pandemic
4
pandemic caused
4
caused respiratory
4

Similar Publications

Unraveling the Meaning of Effective Uptake Coefficients in Multiphase and Aerosol Chemistry.

Acc Chem Res

January 2025

Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, United States.

ConspectusReactions of gas phase molecules with surfaces play key roles in atmospheric and environmental chemistry. Reactive uptake coefficients (γ), the fraction of gas-surface collisions that yield a reaction, are used to quantify the kinetics in these heterogeneous and multiphase systems. Unlike rate coefficients for homogeneous gas- or liquid-phase reactions, uptake coefficients are system- and observation-dependent quantities that depend upon a multitude of underlying elementary steps.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Aerosol transport and associated boundary layer thermodynamics under contrasting synoptic conditions over a semiarid site.

Sci Total Environ

January 2025

Department of Geosciences, Atmospheric Science Division, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA; National Wind Institute, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA. Electronic address:

Understanding the kinematics of aerosol horizontal transport and vertical mixing near the surface, within the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL), and in the overlying free troposphere (FT) is critical for various applications, including air quality and weather forecasting, aviation, road safety, and dispersion modeling. Empirical evidence of aerosol mixing processes within the ABL during synoptic-scale events over arid and semiarid regions (i.e.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Rationale: Preterm infants diagnosed with bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) are thought to have fewer and larger alveoli than their term peers, but it is unclear to what degree this persists later in life.

Objectives: To investigate to what degree the distal airspaces are enlarged in adolescents born preterm and to evaluate the new Airspace Dimension Assessment (AiDA) method in investigating this group.

Methods: We investigated 41 adolescents between 15 and 17 years of age, of whom 25 were born very preterm (a gestational age <31 weeks, with a mean of 26 weeks) and 16 were term-born controls.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Nuclear Waste Tank Emission Contributions to Particle Size Distribution.

Health Phys

January 2025

Atmospheric Technologies Group, Savannah River National Laboratory, Aiken, SC.

Pollutants from anthropogenic activities including industrial processes are ubiquitous to the environment. To understand the impact from industrial aerosol on climate and human health, industrial aerosol needs to be better characterized. In this study, particle number concentrations were used as a proxy for atmospheric pollutants, which include both particles and gases.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

During the COVID-19 pandemic, reducing aerosol-generating procedures became fundamental, particularly in ophthalmic surgeries traditionally performed under general anesthesia (GA). Regional anesthesia, such as sub-Tenon's block (STB), is widely used in vitreoretinal surgeries, offering a safer alternative by avoiding airway manipulation. However, the altered orbital anatomy in patients with previous scleral explant surgery creates unique challenges to STB application.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!