ReviewReviews in medical virology2022
Temperature dependent viral tropism: understanding viral seasonality and pathogenicity as applied to the avoidance and treatment of endemic viral respiratory illnesses.
Review in Reviews in medical virology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 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
18 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Global meta-analysis of short-term associations between ambient temperature and pathogen-specific respiratory infections, 2004 to 2023.Euro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin · 2025Pooled it
- Waterborne diseases and climate change.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2026Review
- Heat effects on influenza-like illness and heterogeneity factors across regions: based on 333 cities in China.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Predicting societal risk factors for respiratory co-infections: a cross-sectional study based on multi-source fever clinic data.BMC infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Archaic Introgression Shapes Genetic Variation at Loci Associated With DNA Virus Load in Modern Humans.Genome biology and evolution · 2026Article
- A Review of Respiratory Infection Caused by the Human Metapneumovirus: Occurrence, Epidemiology, Pathogenesis, Public Health Outcomes, and Intervention Strategies.Health science reports · 2026Article
- Avian-origin influenza A viruses tolerate elevated pyrexic temperatures in mammals.Science (New York, N.Y.) · 2025Article
- The impact of temperature and relative humidity on SARS-CoV-2 airborne transmission in Syrian hamsters.Microbiology spectrum · 2025Article
- What Lessons can Be Learned From the Management of the COVID-19 Pandemic?International journal of public health · 2025Review
- An epidemiologic surveillance study based on wastewater and respiratory specimens reveals influenza a virus prevalence and mutations in Taiyuan, China during 2023-2024.BMC infectious diseases · 2024Article
- Will COVID-19 become mild, like a cold?Epidemiology and infection · 2024Review
- Article
- Influence of Seasonality and Public-Health Interventions on the COVID-19 Pandemic in Northern Europe.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
- Viral respiratory infections in a rapidly changing climate: the need to prepare for the next pandemic.EBioMedicine · 2023Review
- Mutation Effects on Structure and Dynamics: Adaptive Evolution of the SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease.Biochemistry · 2023Article
- Roles for Pathogen Interference in Influenza Vaccination, with Implications to Vaccine Effectiveness (VE) and Attribution of Influenza Deaths.Infectious disease reports · 2022Review
- The natural thermal sensitivity of SARS-CoV-2.Infectious medicine · 2022Article
- Temperature dependent viral tropism: understanding viral seasonality and pathogenicity as applied to the avoidance and treatment of endemic viral respiratory illnesses.Reviews in medical virology · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
This review seeks to explain three features of viral respiratory illnesses that have perplexed generations of virologists: (1) the seasonal timing of respiratory illness and the rapid response of outbreaks to weather, specifically temperature; (2) the common viruses causing respiratory illness worldwide, including year-round disease in the Tropics; (3) the rapid arrival and termination of epidemics caused by influenza and other viruses. The inadequacy of the popular explanations of seasonality is discussed, and a simple hypothesis is proposed, called temperature dependent viral tropism (TDVT), that is compatible with the above features of respiratory illness. TDVT notes that viruses can spread more effectively if they moderate their pathogenicity (thereby maintaining host mobility) and suggests that endemic respiratory viruses accomplish this by developing thermal sensitivity within a range that supports organ-specific viral tropism within the human body, whereby they replicate most rapidly at temperatures below body temperature. This can confine them to the upper respiratory tract and allow them to avoid infecting the lungs, heart, gut etc. Biochemical and tissue-culture studies show that 'wild' respiratory viruses show such natural thermal sensitivity. The typical early autumn surge of colds and the occurrence of respiratory illness in the Tropics year-round at intermediate levels are explained by the tendency for strains to adapt their thermal sensitivity to their local climate and season. TDVT has important practical implications for preventing and treating respiratory illness including Covid-19. It is testable with many options for experiments to increase our understanding of viral seasonality and pathogenicity.
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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.