Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32301491›Full record

ReviewThe Journal of infectious diseases2022

Airborne or Droplet Precautions for Health Workers Treating Coronavirus Disease 2019?

Prateek Bahl, Con Doolan, Charitha de Silva, Abrar Ahmad Chughtai, Lydia Bourouiba, C Raina MacIntyre

Registry-linked trialAbstract readReview
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Review in The Journal of infectious diseases, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT05967039 (Evaluation of Lung Function, Lung Ultrasound and Functional Capacity in Long-COVID Patients Who Underwent Physical Therapy), which is not on this map. Cited by 241 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
241citing papers in PubMed, 5 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
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.

NCT05967039 unknown statusnot on this map

Evaluation of Lung Function, Lung Ultrasound and Functional Capacity in Long-COVID Patients Who Underwent Physical Therapy

TypeobservationalSponsorCentro Universitário Augusto MottaRan2022 to 2023Enrolled65ConditionsPost-COVID-19 Syndrome, Long COVIDArmsPhysiotherapy
3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

241 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

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  20. Review of pediatric emergency care and the COVID-19 pandemic.Journal of the American College of Emergency Physicians open · 2023
    Article

181 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Prateek BahlSchool of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, UNSW Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.ORCID 0000-0002-0978-2286
Con DoolanSchool of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, UNSW Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Charitha de SilvaSchool of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, UNSW Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Abrar Ahmad ChughtaiSchool of Public Health and Community Medicine, UNSW Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Lydia BourouibaThe Fluid Dynamics of Disease Transmission Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
C Raina MacIntyreThe Kirby Institute, UNSW Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have been reported in more than 200 countries. Thousands of health workers have been infected, and outbreaks have occurred in hospitals, aged care facilities, and prisons. The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued guidelines for contact and droplet precautions for healthcare workers caring for suspected COVID-19 patients, whereas the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has initially recommended airborne precautions. The 1- to 2-meter (≈3-6 feet) rule of spatial separation is central to droplet precautions and assumes that large droplets do not travel further than 2 meters (≈6 feet). We aimed to review the evidence for horizontal distance traveled by droplets and the guidelines issued by the WHO, CDC, and European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control on respiratory protection for COVID-19. We found that the evidence base for current guidelines is sparse, and the available data do not support the 1- to 2-meter (≈3-6 feet) rule of spatial separation. Of 10 studies on horizontal droplet distance, 8 showed droplets travel more than 2 meters (≈6 feet), in some cases up to 8 meters (≈26 feet). Several studies of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) support aerosol transmission, and 1 study documented virus at a distance of 4 meters (≈13 feet) from the patient. Moreover, evidence suggests that infections cannot neatly be separated into the dichotomy of droplet versus airborne transmission routes. Available studies also show that SARS-CoV-2 can be detected in the air, and remain viable 3 hours after aerosolization. The weight of combined evidence supports airborne precautions for the occupational health and safety of health workers treating patients with COVID-19.

Indexed as

COVID-19AerosolsAgedHealth PersonnelHumansInfection ControlSARS-CoV-2Aerosolsairborne transmissionCOVID-19droplet precautionsmaskrespiratory protection

Identifiers

PMID32301491
PMCPMC7184471

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
Read underepoch 390

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.