Respiratory viral illness and transmission dynamics

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted that we need a clearer understanding of how respiratory viruses are spread so that we can better plan for future outbreaks of respiratory viral disease. This is particularly important in high risk settings, such as care homes. We will systematically search all the available literature and summarise the findings to better understand (1) how diagnostic tests are used to understand whether a patient is infectious and the duration of their infectiousness; (2) the spread of an infection between people without any symptoms (asymptomatic) or those with mild to moderate symptoms; (2) what environmental factors (such as air pollution) might affect virus spread; and (4) how respiratory viruses are spread in care homes and what we can do to reduce the risk of onward infection. This project will provide high quality evidence to inform policy to reduce the spread of respiratory viruses both in the UK and at a global level, through the World Health Organisation. Results from this work will also be published in scientific journals and will be communicated more broadly through public seminars.

Amount awarded: £185,148