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| Dr. Milton talks to a reporter while a flu sufferer sits in the Gesundheit II machine behind him. Volunteers sit for 30 minutes with their heads in the horizontal cone attached to the machine, which sucks in the air around their heads to collect tiny airborne droplets generated deep in the lungs. Milton's machine injects steam to grow these nanoparticles, then collect them. The team also collects the usual nasal and throat swabs. |
Dr. Milton has been recruiting and testing people with flu symptoms since November 2012 to better understand how flu spreads. An expert an in airborne disease transmission, he emphasizes that scientists still don’t know for sure how the influenza virus spreads and infects people. While the recommendations for preventing flu generally focus on covering coughs and washing hands and surfaces, Dr. Milton believes that the air we breathe may play a bigger role than previously thought. The flu virus may spread through tiny airborne droplets which survive and hang in the air after an infected person coughs, or even just breathes. Milton’s “Got Flu?” study is part of a large CDC-funded global study that will provide important new information to help prevent the spread of flu.
Here's a sampling of the coverage the Got Flu? study has received.
CNN Report:
"How Do You Get the Flu?"
WUSA-TV (Channel 9) report:
University of Maryland School of Public Health Seeking Sick Research Subjects During Flu Outbreak
Results from Donald Milton’s Got Flu? study, a study of
influenza virus aerosols, were published in PLOS Pathogens on March
7, 2013. It is study is the first to produce findings that show that using a
surgical mask can reduce the release of even the smallest droplets containing
infectious virus.
Using exhaled breath collected from 38 flu patients, Dr.
Milton and his research team tested both the coarse (≥ 5 µm) and fine (< 5
µm) particles for the number of viruses. They found that the fine particles had
8.8 times more virus than the coarse particles (larger but still airborne
droplets). They also tested the airborne droplets for "culturable"
virus and found that virus was not only abundant in some cases, but was also
infectious. And while some people put out an undetectable number of viruses
into the air, others put out over 100,000 viruses every 30 minutes--a large
range. Wearing a surgical mask significantly decreased the presence of virus in
airborne droplets from exhaled breath, resulting in a 2.8 fold reduction in the
amount of virus shed into the smallest droplets, and a 3.4 fold overall
reduction in virus shed in both the coarse and fine and airborne particles. These
findings suggest that health care facilities should put surgical masks on those
suspected of having influenza, and that individuals with influenza can protect
their families by wearing a mask.
Here is a sample of the news coverage on Dr. Milton’s paper:
CBS Baltimore Report: New Study Finds Flu Is Mostly Spread
By Airborne Droplets Of The Virus
Study
provides more evidence that flu travels through the air --
Baltimore Sun Article by Andrea K. Walker
Baltimore Sun Article by Andrea K. Walker
University
of Maryland News Release, March 7, 2013:
UMD Study Provides New Clues to How Flu is Spread
UMD Study Provides New Clues to How Flu is Spread
Got Flu? Get Paid to Help
Milton seeks
volunteers ages 10 and up who have a fever and sore throat or cough (whether or
not they have had the flu vaccine) to give nasal and throat swabs at the School
of Public Health’s Clinical Research Facility. Participants will be paid $20 and
potentially be eligible to give breath samples in the Gesundheit II for an
additional $80. Some will be asked to be retested over three days, for a
compensation of up to $300. For more information, call 424-2GOTFLU, email gotflu@umd.edu or visit www.gotflu.org.
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