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We know that influenza virus can be transmitted by airborne particles, but many details remain to be unraveled. Researchers evaluated viral dispersal patterns under ordinary clinical circumstances by stationing air sampling machines at various distances from the heads of sick patients admitted to a tertiary care teaching hospital in North Carolina. Air samples then were assayed for influenza virus RNA with quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR).
Among 61 patients with influenza confirmed by rapid testing, aerosolized virus was detected in the vicinity of 26 “emitters” (43%), 5 of whom were “super-emitters,” who generated aerosolized virus in quantities orders of magnitude higher than other emitters. Emitters had more virus in their nas…