Abstract

Influenza is a major cause of winter-time morbidity and mortality in temperate climates. While the regular “coincidence” of flu epidemics and winter is obvious, the causal relationship is still not well understood. Studies on the role of relative humidity (RH) and temperature on viral survival, transmission and infection rates didn’t demonstrate conclusive trends. A series of exciting recent studies have instead focused on absolute humidity (AH) and demonstrated highly significant correlations with viral survival and transmission rates in both laboratory and epidemiological models.

The paper reviews the evidence for a causal relationship between absolute humidity and 'flu transmission and outlines, how this could lead to a new approach to curbing this and perhaps other viral epidemics in the winter months.

Conclusion

Quote: “There are data to suggest that outdoor AH levels affect humidity levels inside and that simple humidifiers may be adequate to raise AH to levels associated with a significant reduction in influenza virus survival”.

“The prospect of reducing influenza-associated morbidity and mortality by increasing the absolute humidity in nurseries, classrooms, hospitals, homes for the elderly and general public spaces is an exciting and novel potential strategy for disarming 'flu”.