Abstract
BackgroundThe Influenza A H1N1 virus can be transmitted via direct, indirect, and airborne route to non-infected subjects when an infected patient coughs, which expels a number of different sized droplets to the surrounding environment as an aerosol. The objective of the current study was to characterize the human cough aerosol pattern with the aim of developing a standard human cough bioaerosol model for Influenza Pandemic control.Method45 healthy non-smokers participated in the open bench study by giving their best effort cough. A laser diffraction system was used to obtain accurate, time-dependent, quantitative measurements of the size and number of droplets expelled by the cough aerosol.ResultsVoluntary coughs generated droplets ranging from 0.1 - 900 microns in size. Droplets of less than one-micron size represent 97% of the total number of measured droplets contained in the cough aerosol. Age, sex, weight, height and corporal mass have no statistically significant effect on the aerosol composition in terms of size and number of droplets.ConclusionsWe have developed a standard human cough aerosol model. We have quantitatively characterized the pattern, size, and number of droplets present in the most important mode of person-to-person transmission of IRD: the cough bioaerosol. Small size droplets (< 1 μm) predominated the total number of droplets expelled when coughing. The cough aerosol is the single source of direct, indirect and/or airborne transmission of respiratory infections like the Influenza A H1N1 virus.Study designOpen bench, Observational, Cough, Aerosol study
Highlights
The Influenza A H1N1 virus can be transmitted via direct, indirect, and airborne route to non-infected subjects when an infected patient coughs, which expels a number of different sized droplets to the surrounding environment as an aerosol
Droplets of less than onemicron size represent 97% of the total number of measured droplets contained in the cough aerosol
Aerosol droplets expelled during a single cough event were assessed in 26 male and 19 female participants self-identified as non-smokers, with the exception of one male who declared he was a long-term (30+ years) ex-smoker
Summary
The Influenza A H1N1 virus can be transmitted via direct, indirect, and airborne route to non-infected subjects when an infected patient coughs, which expels a number of different sized droplets to the surrounding environment as an aerosol. Since the early 1990s the World Health Organization (WHO), along with other governmental and non-governmental agencies, has issued multiple requests to the scientific community These requests have been for contributions in the development and design of novel approaches, methods, and technologies to optimize management of infectious respiratory diseases (IRD) in anticipation of new and re-emerging transmissible. Textbooks in Medicine and in other health related areas teach that infectious respiratory diseases such as Tuberculosis and Influenza have a common symptom: cough. Those textbooks teach that via cough is how these diseases are spread and transmitted to noninfected susceptible individuals. Cough mechanisms are described in those textbooks with emphasis in clinical diagnostic and management of the individual with cough [7,8,9]
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