ReviewBMC infectious diseases2019
Recognition of aerosol transmission of infectious agents: a commentary.
Review in BMC infectious diseases, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 336 papers, 7 of them syntheses 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
336 citing papers in PubMed, 7 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Learning from COVID-19: A Systematic Review of the IHR-SPAR Framework's Role in the Pandemic Response.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Pooled it
- Pooled it
- A Systematic Literature Review of Indoor Air Disinfection Techniques for Airborne Bacterial Respiratory Pathogens.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Pooled it
- Front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic: what is the effectiveness of using personal protective equipment in health service environments?-a systematic review.International archives of occupational and environmental health · 2022Pooled it
- Airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2 via aerosols.Reviews in medical virology · 2021Pooled it
- Airborne spread of infectious SARS-CoV-2: Moving forward using lessons from SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV.The Science of the total environment · 2021Pooled it
- Downsides of face masks and possible mitigation strategies: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMJ open · 2021Pooled it
- A Randomized Single-Center Proof of Principle Study to Evaluate the Effectiveness and Safety of a Hydrogel Laser Treatment Patch in Laser Hair Removal.Lasers in surgery and medicine · 2026Trial
- Beyond Infection-Indoor Airborne Pathogens as Contributors to Respiratory Inflammation and Immune Dysregulation: A Narrative Review.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Associations of Indoor Nighttime Ventilation with the Relative Abundances of Typical Pathogenic Bacteria and Fungi in Settled Dusts from Floor, Desk, and Bed of University Dormitories.Microorganisms · 2026Article
- Dual-Action Niclosamide-Polysaccharide Nasal Spray for the Early Therapeutic Intervention of Respiratory Viral Infections.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- Electronic measurement of frequency and duration of close nurse-patient contacts during patient care in intensive and intermediate care units: a cross-sectional observational study.Infection prevention in practice · 2026Article
- Inhalable Chitosan Microparticles: A Spray-Drying Approach for Enhanced Pulmonary Delivery of Rifampicin.ACS omega · 2026Article
- A Nasal Spray Combining Camostat with a Natural Polysaccharide for the Prevention of Viral Infection via Nasal Mucosal Barrier Formation and Entry Inhibition.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- Evaluating modes of influenza transmission (EMIT-2): Insights from lack of transmission in a controlled transmission trial with naturally infected donors.PLoS pathogens · 2026Article
- Hospital Air and Healthcare Personnel as Reservoirs of Drug-Resistant Bacteria in Tertiary Care Settings in Pakistan.Infection and drug resistance · 2026Article
- Evaluating Modes of Influenza Transmission (EMIT-2): Insights from a Controlled Human Influenza Virus Infection Transmission Trial (CHIVITT).medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025Article
- Development of two-dimension epidemic prediction model.Infectious Disease Modelling · 2025Article
- A One-Health Perspective of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR): Human, Animals and Environmental Health.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Qualitative and quantitative analysis of aerosol and droplet dispersion during simulated dental implant procedures using three types of instruments.Clinical oral investigations · 2025Article
276 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Although short-range large-droplet transmission is possible for most respiratory infectious agents, deciding on whether the same agent is also airborne has a potentially huge impact on the types (and costs) of infection control interventions that are required.The concept and definition of aerosols is also discussed, as is the concept of large droplet transmission, and airborne transmission which is meant by most authors to be synonymous with aerosol transmission, although some use the term to mean either large droplet or aerosol transmission.However, these terms are often used confusingly when discussing specific infection control interventions for individual pathogens that are accepted to be mostly transmitted by the airborne (aerosol) route (e.g. tuberculosis, measles and chickenpox). It is therefore important to clarify such terminology, where a particular intervention, like the type of personal protective equipment (PPE) to be used, is deemed adequate to intervene for this potential mode of transmission, i.e. at an N95 rather than surgical mask level requirement.With this in mind, this review considers the commonly used term of 'aerosol transmission' in the context of some infectious agents that are well-recognized to be transmissible via the airborne route. It also discusses other agents, like influenza virus, where the potential for airborne transmission is much more dependent on various host, viral and environmental factors, and where its potential for aerosol transmission may be underestimated.
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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.