Background: The relative importance of different routes of influenza transmission, including the role of bioaerosols, and ability of masks and/or hand hygiene to prevent transmission, remains poorly understood. Current evidence suggests that infectious virus is not typically released from adults after 5 days of illness, however, little is known about the extent to which virus is deposited by infected individuals into the environment and whether deposited virus has the ability to infect new hosts. Further information about the deposition of viable influenza virus in the immediate vicinity of patients with pandemic influenza is fundamental to our understanding of the routes and mechanisms of transmission.
Objectives: To collect data on patients infected with pandemic H1N1 2009 (swine flu). Primary objectives were to correlate the amount of virus detected in a patient's nose with that recovered from his/her immediate environment, and with symptom duration and severity. Secondary objectives were to describe virus shedding and duration according to major patient characteristics: adults versus children, and those with mild illness (community patients) versus those with more severe disease (hospitalised patients).
Methods: Adults and children, both in hospital and from the community, who had symptoms of pandemic H1N1 infection, were enrolled and visited every day during follow-up for a maximum of 12 days. Symptom data was collected and samples were taken, including nose swabs and swabs from surfaces and objects around patients. Samples of air were obtained using validated sampling equipment. The samples were tested for the presence of pandemic H1N1 virus, using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to detect virus genome and an immunofluorescence technique to detect viable virus.
Results: Forty-three subjects were followed up, and 19 of them were subsequently proven to be infected with pandemic H1N1 virus. The median duration of virus shedding from the 19 infected cases was 6 days when detection was performed by PCR, and 3 days when detection was performed by a culture technique. Over 30% of cases remained potentially infectious for at least 5 days. Only 0.5% of all community and none of the hospital swabs taken revealed virus on surfaces. Five subjects had samples of the air around them collected and virus was detected by PCR from four; some of the air particles in which virus was detected were small enough to be inhaled and deposited deep in the lungs.
Limitation: Small number of subjects recruited.
Conclusions: The finding that over 30% of infected individuals have infectious virus in their noses for 5 days or more has infection control implications. The data suggest that contact transmission of pandemic influenza via fomites may be less important than previously thought, but transmission via bioaerosols at short range may be possible, meaning that high-level personal protective equipment may be needed by health-care workers when attending patients with pandemic influenza. Further work is being undertaken to consolidate these findings, as they have important potential implications for the protection of health-care workers and the formulation of advice to households, nationally and internationally.