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About the Authors:
John D. Noti
* E-mail: [email protected]
Affiliation: Health Effects Laboratory Division (HELD), National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Morgantown, West Virginia, United States of America
Francoise M. Blachere
Affiliation: Health Effects Laboratory Division (HELD), National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Morgantown, West Virginia, United States of America
Cynthia M. McMillen
Affiliations Health Effects Laboratory Division (HELD), National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Morgantown, West Virginia, United States of America, Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Cell Biology, School of Medicine, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia, United States of America
William G. Lindsley
Affiliation: Health Effects Laboratory Division (HELD), National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Morgantown, West Virginia, United States of America
Michael L. Kashon
Affiliation: Health Effects Laboratory Division (HELD), National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Morgantown, West Virginia, United States of America
Denzil R. Slaughter
Affiliation: Health Effects Laboratory Division (HELD), National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Morgantown, West Virginia, United States of America
Donald H. Beezhold
Affiliation: Health Effects Laboratory Division (HELD), National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Morgantown, West Virginia, United States of America
Introduction
Winter influenza outbreaks occur with seasonal regularity in temperate climates and it has been suggested that humidity may affect transmission [1], [2]. Previous studies using influenza aerosols in small settling chambers generally concluded that aerosolized virus was inactivated at high relative humidity (RH) but survived much better at low RH [3], [4], [5]. Other studies [6], [7] revealed that survival was optimum at low RH, moderate at high RH and minimum at middle RH. The aerodynamic diameters of the aerosolized particles were not determined in any of these studies; therefore, the influence of particle size on inactivation of virus has not been reported. Lowen et al. [8] used a guinea pig model to directly test whether humidity affected aerosol transmission of influenza from infected animals to uninfected animals, housed in adjacent...