Following the COVID-19 pandemic, interest in airborne transmission has increased significantly.
According to researchers, the risk of infection is not only related to the distance between people, but also to how air moves within a room.
The study is important because it challenges a long-standing assumption that close indoor contact automatically leads to influenza transmission.
In a scientific article published in PLOS Pathogens, researchers from the University of Maryland describe an experiment that specifically examines these factors.
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The aim was to understand how influenza spreads in situations that resemble everyday life.
Healthy middle-aged individuals
The experiment brought together healthy middle-aged volunteers and individuals who were already infected with influenza in the same indoor environment over several days.
Despite close contact, none of the healthy participants became infected.
According to the researchers, the infected participants rarely coughed, meaning that only small amounts of virus were released into the air.
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At the same time, the air in the room was constantly mixed, diluting the virus particles.
Age may also have played a role, as middle-aged people are generally less susceptible to influenza.
What does this mean?
Transmission does not depend solely on how close people are to one another.
According to Professor Donald Milton of the University of Maryland, the results show that behavior and air conditions can be at least as important.
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The study therefore challenges a simplistic understanding of transmission and suggests that good ventilation and attention to coughing can reduce the risk of influenza indoors.
Sources: Science Daily, and PLOS Pathogens.
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