4.7 Article

Sensitivity of airborne transmission of enveloped viruses to seasonal variation in indoor relative humidity

Publisher

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.icheatmasstransfer.2021.105747

Keywords

Relative humidity; Airborne transmission; Respiratory aerosol

Funding

  1. DOE Office of Science through the National Virtual Biotechnology Laboratory
  2. DOE national laboratories focused on response to COVID-19
  3. U.S. Department of Energy through the Office of Science, Office of Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists (WDTS) under the Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internships Program (SULI)
  4. Environmental and Climate Sciences Department under the BNL Supplemental Undergraduate Research Program (SURP)
  5. DOE Atmospheric System Research program at Brookhaven National Laboratory
  6. DOE [DE-SC0012704]

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In temperate climates, the peak in infection rates of enveloped viruses during the winter is likely heightened by seasonal variation in relative humidity within indoor spaces. Relative humidity impacts the seasonal transmission via inactivation rates rather than particle removal.
In temperate climates, the peak in infection rates of enveloped viruses during the winter is likely heightened by seasonal variation in relative humidity within indoor spaces. While these seasonal trends are established in influenza and human coronaviruses, the mechanisms driving this seasonality remain poorly understood. Relative humidity impacts the evaporation rate and equilibrium size of airborne particles, which in turn may impact particle removal rates and virion viability. However, the relative importance of these two processes is not known. Here we use the Quadrature-based model of Respiratory Aerosol and Droplets to explore whether the seasonal variation in enveloped viruses is driven by differences in particle removal rates or by differences in virion inactivation rates. Through a large ensemble of simulations, we found that dry indoor conditions typical of winter lead to slower virion inactivation than humid indoor conditions typical of summer; in poorly ventilated spaces, this reduction in inactivation rates increases the airborne concentration of active virions, but this effect was important to virion exposure only when the susceptible person was farther than 2 m downwind of the infectious person. On the other hand, the impact of relative humidity on particle settling velocity did not significantly affect the removal or travel distance of virus-laden particles, suggesting that relative humidity is more likely to affect seasonal transmission via inactivation rates than via particle removal.

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