The role of particle size in aerosolised pathogen transmission: A review

By J. Gralton, E. Tovey, M. McLaws, W. Rawlinson. Journal of Infection, 2010

661 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Understanding respiratory pathogen transmission is essential for public health measures aimed at reducing pathogen spread. Particle generation and size are key determinant for pathogen carriage, aerosolisation, and transmission. Production of infectious respiratory particles is dependent on the type and frequency of respiratory activity, type and site of infection and pathogen load. Further, relative humidity, particle aggregation and mucus properties influence expelled particle size and subsequent transmission. Review of 26 studies reporting particle sizes generated from breathing, coughing, sneezing and talking showed healthy individuals generate particles between 0.01 and 500 μm, and individuals with infections produce particles between 0.05 and 500 μm. This indicates that expelled particles carrying pathogens do not exclusively disperse by airborne or droplet transmission but avail of both methods simultaneously and current dichotomous infection control precautions should be updated to include measures to contain both modes of aerosolised transmission.

Subfields: Infectious Diseases, Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/d38064cbc0aa5ad0e871a8cf1cce00876f179a88

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

1. Fiona Sprang
2. J. Pikmann
3. Lasse Moormann
4. F. Drewnick
5. S. Borrmann
6. F. Fachinger

Citations in the corpus

• Aerosol filtration efficiency of household materials for homemade face masks: Influence of material properties, particle size, particle electrical charge, face velocity, and leaks (2020, methodology): “Small droplets, smaller than several tens of mm, evaporate within seconds (Morawska et al. 2009; Gralton et al. 2011; Parienta et al. 2011; Chaudhuri et al. 2020), leaving droplet nuclei of 30–50% of their initial diameter, depending on the amount of dissolved material.”