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Rhinoviruses, a common cause of upper-respiratory- tract infections, are readily spread from person to person. The route of transmission -- aerosol, fomite, or direct contact -- is a subject of debate. Investigators at the University of Wisconsin designed a study to examine the transmission of rhinoviruses among a group of volunteers. Eight rhinovirus-infected men with severe colds played poker with 12 healthy, nonimmune men for 12 hours. Restraining devices that prevented subjects from touching their heads were used on some subjects to compare the importance of combined aerosol and fomite transmission with that of aerosol transmission alone.
In three experiments, the infection rate in subjects who could have been infected only through aeros…