Respiratory Transmission
- 22 March 2001
- book chapter
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP)
Abstract
Richard Riley, a pioneer aerobiologist of the twentieth century, traced concern over respiratory spread of disease back to the time of the ancient Egyptian dynasties (Riley 1980). In fact, early theories of contagion tended to focus on respiratory spread of disease more than subsequent work has shown to be warranted. The nineteenth century discovery of important water and foodborne transmission routes shifted attention away from respiratory mechanisms of spread. Interest in the respiratory area was renewed in the twentieth century by the work of William Wells who proposed the concept of droplet nuclei, small (<10µ) infectious particles that remain suspended in air (Wells 1934). This mode of transmission was subsequently shown to be important in some respiratory diseases such as tuberculosis and measles. The route by which common cold viruses spread remained speculative. More recent work has implicated virus contaminated fingers in the transmission of rhinovirus colds (Hendley et al. 1973). This discovery has shifted attention to direct contact as a method of transmission for some respiratory viruses.This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: