Details:

Journal Title:
Indoor Air
Personal Author:
Jimenez, Jose L. ; Peng, Zhe ; Pagonis, Demetrios
Jimenez, Jose L. ; Peng, Zhe ; Pagonis, Demetrios Less -
NOAA Program & Office:
CIRES (Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences)
Description:
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought a new appreciation of the importance of airborne disease transmission. Airborne transmission is caused by the inhalation of pathogen-containing aerosols that are produced by an infected person.1 Before the pandemic, the main accepted airborne diseases were tuberculosis, measles, and chickenpox. At the start of the pandemic, WHO concluded that COVID-19 was a contact/droplet/fomite disease, understood to mean either direct physical contact, or a spray of ballistic larger particles that impact on eyes, nostrils, or mouth, or are picked up by hands and delivered to the same body parts.1, 2 However, it has become clear that COVID-19 really is a predominantly airborne disease.3, 4 A re-examination of literature evidence also concluded that all or almost all transmissible respiratory diseases are airborne, including influenza, SARS, MERS, and rhinovirus.5 In hindsight, this is not so surprising: respiratory diseases infect the respiratory system, and aerosols of pathogen-containing respiratory fluid and saliva are generated when breathing, talking, singing, shouting, coughing, or sneezing. Inhalation of those aerosols leads to their deposition in the respiratory tract of susceptible people, potentially initiating infection.5 A smaller fraction of COVID-19 transmission may occur through either deposition of respiratory aerosols on the eyes, large droplet spray, direct contact (e.g., kissing), or through inhalation of aerosols containing fecal material or emitted from resuspension of fomites. In principle, surface touch (fomites) can also lead to infection, although with low probability.6
Keywords:
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Building And Construction Environmental Engineering Public Health, Environmental And Occupational Health
Source:
Indoor Air, 32(5)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1111/ina.13025
ISSN:
0905-6947;1600-0668;
Format:
PDF
Publisher:
Hindawi Limited
Document Type:
Journal Article
License:
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Rights Information:
CC BY
Compliance:
Library
Main Document Checksum:
[+]
urn:sha256:b4e69eab28920de73785cebacbd5e9d1e8ede4f1ec1006e5e9d406ee9fbe8a39
Download URL:
https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/53560/noaa_53560_DS1.pdf
File Type:

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