Environmental Role in Influenza Virus Outbreaks
- 16 February 2015
- journal article
- review article
- Published by Annual Reviews in Annual Review of Animal Biosciences
- Vol. 3 (1), 347-373
- https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-animal-022114-111017
Abstract
The environmental drivers of influenza outbreaks are largely unknown. Despite more than 50 years of research, there are conflicting lines of evidence on the role of the environment in influenza A virus (IAV) survival, stability, and transmissibility. With the increasing and looming threat of pandemic influenza, it is important to understand these factors for early intervention and long-term control strategies. The factors that dictate the severity and spread of influenza would include the virus, natural and acquired hosts, virus-host interactions, environmental persistence, virus stability and transmissibility, and anthropogenic interventions. Virus persistence in different environments is subject to minor variations in temperature, humidity, pH, salinity, air pollution, and solar radiations. Seasonality of influenza is largely dictated by temperature and humidity, with cool-dry conditions enhancing IAV survival and transmissibility in temperate climates in high latitudes, whereas humid-rainy conditions favor outbreaks in low latitudes, as seen in tropical and subtropical zones. In mid-latitudes, semiannual outbreaks result from alternating cool-dry and humid-rainy conditions. The mechanism of virus survival in the cool-dry or humid-rainy conditions is largely determined by the presence of salts and proteins in the respiratory droplets. Social determinants of heath, including health equity, vaccine acceptance, and age-related illness, may play a role in influenza occurrence and spread.Keywords
This publication has 99 references indexed in Scilit:
- Environmental factors affecting the transmission of respiratory virusesCurrent Opinion in Virology, 2012
- Predicting ‘airborne’ influenza viruses: (trans-) mission impossible?Current Opinion in Virology, 2011
- Effect of receptor binding domain mutations on receptor binding and transmissibility of avian influenza H5N1 virusesVirology, 2011
- Influenza Virus Evolution, Host Adaptation, and Pandemic FormationCell Host & Microbe, 2010
- Detecting influenza epidemics using search engine query dataNature, 2009
- Inactivation of influenza A viruses in the environment and modes of transmission: A critical reviewJournal of Infection, 2008
- Recent Avian H5N1 Viruses Exhibit Increased Propensity for Acquiring Human Receptor SpecificityJournal of Molecular Biology, 2008
- Detection and isolation of H5N1 influenza virus from large volumes of natural waterJournal of Virological Methods, 2008
- Lack of transmission of H5N1 avian–human reassortant influenza viruses in a ferret modelProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2006
- The guinea pig as a transmission model for human influenza virusesProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2006