Evidence map›Paper›PMID 28283135›Full record

ArticleAnnals of global health

On the 2-Row Rule for Infectious Disease Transmission on Aircraft.

Vicki Stover Hertzberg, Howard Weiss

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Annals of global health. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
23citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
3.1field-weighted citation impact, top 9% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

23 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 61 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
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  5. Review
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  9. Review
  10. Covid-19 infection risk on US domestic airlines.Health care management science · 2022
    Article
  11. Article
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  15. High-Fidelity Simulation of Pathogen Propagation, Transmission and Mitigation in the Built Environment.Archives of computational methods in engineering : state of the art reviews · 2021
    Article
  16. Transmission of SARS-CoV 2 During Long-Haul Flight.Emerging infectious diseases · 2020
    Article
  17. Article
  18. Lack of COVID-19 transmission on an international flight.CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne · 2020
    Article
  19. Behaviors, movements, and transmission of droplet-mediated respiratory diseases during transcontinental airline flights.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2018
    Article
  20. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

Vicki Stover HertzbergNell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, Emory University, Atlanta, GA. Electronic address: vhertzb@emory.edu.
Howard WeissSchool of Mathematics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA.
Emory University · USGeorgia Institute of Technology · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundWith over two billion airline passengers annually, in-flight transmission of infectious diseases is an important global health concern. Many instances of in-flight transmission have been documented, but the relative influence of the many factors (see below) affecting in-flight transmission has not been quantified. Long-standing guidance by public health agencies is that the primary transmission risk associated with air travel for most respiratory infectious diseases is associated with sitting within two rows of an infectious passenger. The effect of proximity may be one of these factors.

objectiveThe aim of this study was to determine the risk of infection within and beyond the 2-row rule given by public health guidance.

methodsWe searched the literature for reports of in-flight transmission of infection which included seat maps indicating where the infectious and infected passengers were seated.

findingsThere is a ∼ 6% risk to passengers seated within the 2-rows of infected individual(s) and there is ∼ 2% risk to passengers seated beyond 2-rows from the infectious individual. DISCUSSION: Contact tracing limited to passengers within 2-rows of the infectious individual(s) could fail to detect other cases of infections. This has important consequences for assessing the spread of infectious diseases.

conclusionsInfection at a distance from the index case indicates other factors, such as airflow, movement of passenger/crew members, fomites and contacts between passengers in the departure gate before boarding, or after deplaning, are involved.

Indexed as

AircraftAir TravelDisease Transmission, InfectiousEnvironmental ExposureHumansPublic HealthTravel MedicineAirplane cabindisease riskinfectious disease transmissioninfluenzaSARS

Identifiers

PMID28283135
PMCPMC7104167
OpenAlexW2475005553

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.