ArticlePloS one2018
Humidity as a non-pharmaceutical intervention for influenza A.
Article in PloS one, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled 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.
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.
Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 33 citations in OpenAlex.
- Humidification of indoor air for preventing or reducing dryness symptoms or upper respiratory infections in educational settings and at the workplace.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2021Pooled it
- Determinants of respiratory syncytial virus and human metapneumovirus transmission.Clinical microbiology reviews · 2025Review
- Reduction of acute respiratory infections in day-care by non-pharmaceutical interventions: a narrative review.Frontiers in public health · 2024Review
- Coping with the COVID-19 pandemic by strengthening immunity as a nonpharmaceutical intervention: A major public health challenge.Health science reports · 2023Article
- Unanswered questions on the airborne transmission of COVID-19.Environmental chemistry letters · 2023Review
- Associative evidence for the potential of humidification as a non-pharmaceutical intervention for influenza and SARS-CoV-2 transmission.Journal of exposure science & environmental epidemiology · 2022Article
- An Initial Study of Practicing Psychologists' Views of the Utility of Ecological Momentary Assessment for Difficult Psychotherapy Cases.Administration and policy in mental health · 2021Article
- Can Prophylactic High Flow of Humidified and Warmed Filtered Air Improve Survival from Bacterial Pneumonia and SARS-CoV-2 in Elderly Individuals? The Role of Surfactant Protein A.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Hydrating the respiratory tract: An alternative explanation why masks lower severity of COVID-19.Biophysical journal · 2021Article
- Relative humidity in droplet and airborne transmission of disease.Journal of biological physics · 2021Review
- Epidemiological Study of Influenza A, Influenza B, Enterovirus 71, and Coxsackievirus A16 Among Children in the Central Region of Zhejiang Province, China.Current microbiology · 2020Article
- Evolution of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic: A global health emergency.The Science of the total environment · 2020Review
- Nonpharmaceutical Measures for Pandemic Influenza in Nonhealthcare Settings-Personal Protective and Environmental Measures.Emerging infectious diseases · 2020Review
- Viruses in the Built Environment (VIBE) meeting report.Microbiome · 2020Article
- Wellbuilt for wellbeing: Controlling relative humidity in the workplace matters for our health.Indoor air · 2020Article
- High Prevalence of Viral Infections Among Hospitalized Pneumonia Patients in Equatorial Sarawak, Malaysia.Open forum infectious diseases · 2019Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
17 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Influenza is a global problem infecting 5-10% of adults and 20-30% of children annually. Non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) are attractive approaches to complement vaccination in the prevention and reduction of influenza. Strong cyclical reduction of absolute humidity has been associated with influenza outbreaks in temperate climates. This study tested the hypothesis that raising absolute humidity above seasonal lows would impact influenza virus survival and transmission in a key source of influenza virus distribution, a community school. Air samples and objects handled by students (e.g. blocks and markers) were collected from preschool classrooms. All samples were processed and PCR used to determine the presence of influenza virus and its amount. Additionally samples were tested for their ability to infect cells in cultures. We observed a significant reduction (p < 0.05) in the total number of influenza A virus positive samples (air and fomite) and viral genome copies upon humidification as compared to control rooms. This suggests the future potential of artificial humidification as a possible strategy to control influenza outbreaks in temperate climates. There were 2.3 times as many ILI cases in the control rooms compared to the humidified rooms, and whether there is a causal relationship, and its direction between the number of cases and levels of influenza virus in the rooms is not known. Additional research is required, but this is the first prospective study suggesting that exogenous humidification could serve as a scalable NPI for influenza or other viral outbreaks.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.