Elsevier

Current Opinion in Virology

Volume 28, February 2018, Pages 142-151
Current Opinion in Virology

Transmission routes of respiratory viruses among humans

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coviro.2018.01.001Get rights and content
Under a Creative Commons license
open access

Highlights

  • Respiratory viruses are transmitted via contact, droplets or aerosols.

  • Most studies on inter-human transmission routes are inconclusive.

  • The relative importance of respiratory virus transmission routes is not known.

  • Modern detection methods can advance transmission experiments.

  • Knowledge on inter-human virus transmission will improve intervention strategies.

Respiratory tract infections can be caused by a wide variety of viruses. Airborne transmission via droplets and aerosols enables some of these viruses to spread efficiently among humans, causing outbreaks that are difficult to control. Many outbreaks have been investigated retrospectively to study the possible routes of inter-human virus transmission. The results of these studies are often inconclusive and at the same time data from controlled experiments is sparse. Therefore, fundamental knowledge on transmission routes that could be used to improve intervention strategies is still missing. We here present an overview of the available data from experimental and observational studies on the transmission routes of respiratory viruses between humans, identify knowledge gaps, and discuss how the available knowledge is currently implemented in isolation guidelines in health care settings.

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These authors contributed equally to this work.