This year, as an aggressive new virus spreads across the country, flu season It is characterized by record numbers of hospitalizations and reportedly severe symptoms.
As people look for ways to stop the spread of infection, new research has found that a few simple factors can significantly reduce transmission.
Researchers at the University of Maryland, College Park’s School of Public Health Engineering and the Baltimore School of Medicine studied the spread of influenza By placing influenza-positive college students in hotel rooms with healthy middle-aged adult volunteers.
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The study, published in the journal PLOS Pathogens, is reportedly the first clinical trial to investigate how influenza is transmitted from naturally infected people to uninfected people, according to a press release.
Participants, including 11 healthy volunteers, lived for two weeks on an isolated floor of a Baltimore-area hotel. During that time, they simulated interactions such as having conversations, doing physical activities such as yoga, and passing objects such as pens and tablets around them. infected person To the rest of the group.
Researchers monitored participants’ symptoms daily. nasal swabtook saliva and blood samples to test for antibodies, the release states.
The study also measured “virus exposure” in the air the volunteers breathed and in the ambient air of the activity room. The participants’ breath was measured with a machine called the Gesundheit II, invented by researcher Donald Milton, Ph.D., and colleagues at Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
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At the end of the experiment, both healthy person I got infected with influenza due to various factors. This included a lack of coughing, the researchers noted, as the infected students carried “a large amount of virus in their noses” and only a small amount was “released into the air.”
“Our data suggest important factors that increase the likelihood of influenza infection, with cough being the primary cause,” Jianyu Lai, Ph.D., a postdoctoral researcher and the study’s lead data analyst and report author, said in a statement.
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Another factor is ventilation and air movementLai noted that the air in the lab was “continuously and rapidly mixed by heaters and dehumidifiers, which diluted any traces of virus in the air.”
The researchers added that middle-aged adults are “usually less susceptible to influenza” than younger adults.
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According to Dr. Donald Milton, a professor in SPH’s School of Earth, Environmental and Occupational Health and a global expert on infectious disease aerobiology, most researchers assume that airborne transmission is the primary driver of disease spread.
“Everyone seems to be infected with the influenza virus this time of year, but our study shows no infection,” he said in the same press release. “What does this tell us about how influenza spreads and is transmitted?” stop the trend? ”
Milton was reportedly one of the first experts to identify ways to stop the infection. Spread of new coronavirus infection (COVID-19)pointed out that results from this type of trial are essential for updating international infectious disease control guidelines.
“Spending time indoors, where there’s not a lot of air movement, in close proximity to other people seems like the most dangerous thing to do, and it’s something we all tend to do,” he says.
“Our results suggest that portable air purifiers that not only clean but agitate the air could be a big help,” Milton suggested. “But if you’re really close and someone is coughing, the best way to stay safe is to wear a mask, especially an N95.”
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So far in the 2025-2026 flu season, about 11 million people have contracted the flu and about 5,000 have died, according to CDC data. Current share is large In case of influenza It is caused by a novel influenza A subclade K variant.
