ArticleJournal of the Royal Society, Interface2019
Mechanistic insights into the effect of humidity on airborne influenza virus survival, transmission and incidence.
Article in Journal of the Royal Society, Interface, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 187 papers, 3 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
187 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The impact of climate change on airborne and droplet-borne diseases and hospital response measures.Frontiers in public health · 2026Pooled it
- A meta-analysis result: Uneven influences of season, geo-spatial scale and latitude on relationship between meteorological factors and the COVID-19 transmission.Environmental research · 2022Pooled it
- An updated systematic review on the association between atmospheric particulate matter pollution and prevalence of SARS-CoV-2.Environmental research · 2021Pooled it
- HA thermostability mutations S84F, G167N, and D168N potentiate H9N2 virus transmission in a warming environment.Emerging microbes & infections · 2026Article
- Associations between El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and tuberculosis incidence in China: a nationwide study.One health (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · 2026Article
- The pitfalls of incidence-based time series regression for inferring the effects of weather on infectious diseases.PLoS computational biology · 2026Article
- Climatic heterogeneity in meteorological associations with childhood acute respiratory symptoms across four South Asian countries.Journal of global health · 2026Article
- Beyond Infection-Indoor Airborne Pathogens as Contributors to Respiratory Inflammation and Immune Dysregulation: A Narrative Review.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Spatiotemporal epidemiology of influenza in Fujian Province: an 18-year observational study.BMC infectious diseases · 2026Observational
- Epidemiology and factors associated with Talaromyces marneffei detection in the mainland of China, 2022-2024: a cross-sectional study of hospitalized patients.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Evaluation of disinfection efficiency of new high oxygen membrane air disinfecting machine in hospital ward environment.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Absolute humidity drives seasonal influenza A transmission in Hong Kong through social contact modulation: Evidence from compartmental modeling.Infectious Disease Modelling · 2026Article
- Climate change and infectious diseases.Nature medicine · 2026Review
- Pathogens on High-Touch Surfaces in an Arid Megacity: A Longitudinal Molecular Surveillance Study.Microorganisms · 2026Article
- Influence of Carbon Dioxide and pH on Influenza Virus in Sessile Saliva Droplets.Environmental science & technology · 2026Article
- Incorporating meteorological factors into a SARIMA model for predicting pediatric influenza epidemics.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Epidemiology and lagged climatic drivers of pediatric viral lower respiratory tract infections in Tianjin, China (2023-2025).Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2026Article
- Semiannual seasonality of COVID-19 with alternating peaks in winter and summer.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Article
- Heterogeneity of Airborne Virus Transmission in the Built Environment: A Narrative Review.Pathogens & immunity · 2026Review
127 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
Abstract
Influenza incidence and seasonality, along with virus survival and transmission, appear to depend at least partly on humidity, and recent studies have suggested that absolute humidity (AH) is more important than relative humidity (RH) in modulating observed patterns. In this perspective article, we re-evaluate studies of influenza virus survival in aerosols, transmission in animal models and influenza incidence to show that the combination of temperature and RH is equally valid as AH as a predictor. Collinearity must be considered, as higher levels of AH are only possible at higher temperatures, where it is well established that virus decay is more rapid. In studies of incidence that employ meteorological data, outdoor AH may be serving as a proxy for indoor RH in temperate regions during the wintertime heating season. Finally, we present a mechanistic explanation based on droplet evaporation and its impact on droplet physics and chemistry for why RH is more likely than AH to modulate virus survival and transmission.
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.