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Particle sizes of infectious aerosols: implications for infection control
The global pandemic of COVID-19 has been associated with infections and deaths among health-care workers. This Viewpoint of infectious aerosols is intended to inform appropriate infection control measures to protect health-care workers. Studies of cough aerosols and of exhaled breath from patients w...
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Elsevier Ltd.
2020
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7380927/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32717211 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S2213-2600(20)30323-4 |
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author | Fennelly, Kevin P |
author_facet | Fennelly, Kevin P |
author_sort | Fennelly, Kevin P |
collection | PubMed |
description | The global pandemic of COVID-19 has been associated with infections and deaths among health-care workers. This Viewpoint of infectious aerosols is intended to inform appropriate infection control measures to protect health-care workers. Studies of cough aerosols and of exhaled breath from patients with various respiratory infections have shown striking similarities in aerosol size distributions, with a predominance of pathogens in small particles (<5 μm). These are immediately respirable, suggesting the need for personal respiratory protection (respirators) for individuals in close proximity to patients with potentially virulent pathogens. There is no evidence that some pathogens are carried only in large droplets. Surgical masks might offer some respiratory protection from inhalation of infectious aerosols, but not as much as respirators. However, surgical masks worn by patients reduce exposures to infectious aerosols to health-care workers and other individuals. The variability of infectious aerosol production, with some so-called super-emitters producing much higher amounts of infectious aerosol than most, might help to explain the epidemiology of super-spreading. Airborne infection control measures are indicated for potentially lethal respiratory pathogens such as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7380927 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | Elsevier Ltd. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-73809272020-07-28 Particle sizes of infectious aerosols: implications for infection control Fennelly, Kevin P Lancet Respir Med Viewpoint The global pandemic of COVID-19 has been associated with infections and deaths among health-care workers. This Viewpoint of infectious aerosols is intended to inform appropriate infection control measures to protect health-care workers. Studies of cough aerosols and of exhaled breath from patients with various respiratory infections have shown striking similarities in aerosol size distributions, with a predominance of pathogens in small particles (<5 μm). These are immediately respirable, suggesting the need for personal respiratory protection (respirators) for individuals in close proximity to patients with potentially virulent pathogens. There is no evidence that some pathogens are carried only in large droplets. Surgical masks might offer some respiratory protection from inhalation of infectious aerosols, but not as much as respirators. However, surgical masks worn by patients reduce exposures to infectious aerosols to health-care workers and other individuals. The variability of infectious aerosol production, with some so-called super-emitters producing much higher amounts of infectious aerosol than most, might help to explain the epidemiology of super-spreading. Airborne infection control measures are indicated for potentially lethal respiratory pathogens such as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. Elsevier Ltd. 2020-09 2020-07-24 /pmc/articles/PMC7380927/ /pubmed/32717211 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S2213-2600(20)30323-4 Text en © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Since January 2020 Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre - including this research content - immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active. |
spellingShingle | Viewpoint Fennelly, Kevin P Particle sizes of infectious aerosols: implications for infection control |
title | Particle sizes of infectious aerosols: implications for infection control |
title_full | Particle sizes of infectious aerosols: implications for infection control |
title_fullStr | Particle sizes of infectious aerosols: implications for infection control |
title_full_unstemmed | Particle sizes of infectious aerosols: implications for infection control |
title_short | Particle sizes of infectious aerosols: implications for infection control |
title_sort | particle sizes of infectious aerosols: implications for infection control |
topic | Viewpoint |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7380927/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32717211 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S2213-2600(20)30323-4 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT fennellykevinp particlesizesofinfectiousaerosolsimplicationsforinfectioncontrol |