Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019 Jan;74(1):87-90.
doi: 10.1136/thoraxjnl-2018-211567. Epub 2018 Apr 7.

Cystic fibrosis pathogens survive for extended periods within cough-generated droplet nuclei

Michelle E Wood  1   2   3 , Rebecca E Stockwell  1   3 , Graham R Johnson  4 , Kay A Ramsay  1   3 , Laura J Sherrard  1   5 , Timothy J Kidd  1   6   7 , Joyce Cheney  8 , Emma L Ballard  9 , Peter O'Rourke  9 , Nassib Jabbour  4 , Claire E Wainwright  3   7   8 , Luke D Knibbs  10 , Peter D Sly  3   7 , Lidia Morawska  4 , Scott C Bell  1   2   3
Affiliations

Cystic fibrosis pathogens survive for extended periods within cough-generated droplet nuclei

Michelle E Wood et al. Thorax. 2019 Jan.

Abstract

The airborne route is a potential pathway in the person-to-person transmission of bacterial strains among cystic fibrosis (CF) populations. In this cross-sectional study, we investigate the physical properties and survival of common non-Pseudomonas aeruginosa CF pathogens generated during coughing. We conclude that Gram-negative bacteria and Staphylococcus aureus are aerosolised during coughing, can travel up to 4 m and remain viable within droplet nuclei for up to 45 min. These results suggest that airborne person-to-person transmission is plausible for the CF pathogens we measured.

Keywords: cystic fibrosis; infection control.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: During conduct of the study: SCB reports grants from Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Therapeutics, USA, and The Prince Charles Hospital Foundation and outside of the submitted work, travel support to attend conferences from Novartis and Gilead and meetings for clinical trials sponsored by Vertex, Abbvie, Raptor. LDK reports grants from the NHMRC during the conduct of the study. GRJ reports grants from Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Therapeutics, USA, and The Prince Charles Hospital Foundation during the conduct of the study. CEW reports outside of the submitted work: research grant from Novo Nordisk Pharmaceuticals; honorarium fees as speaker for Vertex, DKBmed; honorarium for consulting work (BMJ, Vertex), advisory board (Vertex); to present at conference (Novartis), attendance at meetings (University of Miami), Associate Editor duties (Thorax) and travel support to attend meetings for clinical trials sponsored by Vertex. CEW is Associate Editor Thorax and Associate Editor Respirology. MEW reports outside of submitted work: travel support to attend clinical trial meetings sponsored by Vertex and Galapagos.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

Publication types

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources