Spatial and temporal distribution of emerging airborne viral infectious diseases outbreaks on a global scale

Abstract

Aim This study aimed to explore the spatial and temporal characteristics of emerging airborne viral infectious diseases outbreaks worldwide. Subject and methods We conducted a systematic literature review on outbreaks of emerging airborne viral infectious diseases and calculated outbreak number and intensity at the country level. Fisher’s exact test was used to compare the viral infectious diseases outbreaks in different income-level regions. To identify the major airborne viral infectious diseases outbreaks, we ranked and extracted the leading viral infectious diseases in outbreak number and intensity in each country by year. Results A total of 2505 outbreaks were reported from 1873 to 2021 across 2010 studies. There were 47 countries (47/130, 36.15%) with more frequent emerging airborne viral infectious disease outbreaks (more than nine outbreaks), and these countries mainly distributed in high-income regions (22/47 countries, 46.81%, p < 0.05), especially in Western Europe (14/47 countries, 29.79%, p < 0.05). The number of overall outbreaks was more in the United States and China than in other countries in different years. Outbreaks of measles and influenza are always frequent and intense. Highly pathogenic human coronaviruses infection caused short-term pandemics during which their outbreak number and intensity exceeded other viruses. Rift valley fever outbreaks in the human population are spreading outside of Africa through the flow of goods and travelers. Conclusion Countries in high-income regions reported more emerging airborne viral infectious diseases outbreaks, especially in the Western European region, the United States, and China. It is urgent to strengthen collaborative surveillance of emerging airborne viruses, cross-border flow of goods and travelers, and ecological environment to avoid the spread of viral infectious diseases outbreaks worldwide. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10389-023-01850-3.

Zoonotic spillover and extreme weather events drive the global outbreaks of airborne viral emerging infectious diseases

“…The total area that was covered by the potential cluster should be no more than 10% of the entire region. 16 We set the maximum radius as 534 km because the smallest continent is Oceania with an area of around 8.97 million km 2 . Most likely clusters were reported at a significance level of 5% based on 999 Monte Carlo simulations.…”

“…Two reviewers reviewed the full text of selected publications and extracted outbreak record data independently, and all differences of opinion regarding publications selection and data extraction were resolved through discussion. The detailed search strategy and data collection process were published in the previous study 2 …”

“…The detailed search strategy and data collection process were published in the previous study. 2 All original publications that reported outbreaks of the 20 types of EIDs were extracted from the GIDEON database and the systematic literature review, and duplicates were removed. Then, each unique original publication was reviewed to extract the following information about each outbreak event: (1) the causal agents, beginning time, and the index location (e.g., villages, counties, or cities where the outbreaks first took place).…”

“…Emerging infectious disease (EID) outbreaks caused a heavy public health burden around the globe 1 . Due to the airborne transmission routes (through respiratory droplets or aerosols), it is difficult to control the outbreaks of EIDs that are caused by airborne viruses 2 . The past few decades have witnessed a wave of severe outbreaks of EIDs that were caused by airborne viruses, such as the H5N1 epizootics, Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic, the 2012 Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) outbreaks, the 2009 swine flu pandemic, and the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak.…”