Influence of environmental temperature and air pollution on the transmission of SARS-CoV-2

e202101003

Authors

  • Elena Salamanca-Fernández Escuela Andaluza de Salud Pública (EASP). Granada. España. / Instituto de Investigación Biosanitaria (ibs.GRANADA). Granada. España. / Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP). Madrid. España.
  • Miguel Rodríguez Barranco Escuela Andaluza de Salud Pública (EASP). Granada. España. / Instituto de Investigación Biosanitaria (ibs.GRANADA). Granada. España. / Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP). Madrid. España.
  • María José Sánchez Escuela Andaluza de Salud Pública (EASP). Granada. España. / Instituto de Investigación Biosanitaria (ibs.GRANADA). Granada. España. / Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP). Madrid. España. / Departamento de Medicina Preventiva y Salud Pública. Universidad de Granada. Granada. España.

Keywords:

SARS-CoV-2, Environment, Temperature, Pollution

Abstract

The transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is a major Public Health problem that is influenced by a number of factors. Recently it has been hypothesized that this transmission may be reduced during the summer due to the warm temperatures. On the other hand, the potential association between the high number of SARS-CoV-2 infections and air pollution is being studied. This relationship was already proven during the SARS outbreak in 2002. This article reviewed the scientific evidence to date regarding the possible influence of environmental temperature and air pollution on the transmission of SARS-CoV-2. It is concluded that the annual seasons and, therefore, the temperature do not seem to influence the spread of the virus. In addition, air pollutants facilitate infection and mortality from the virus.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Tan J, Mu L, Huang J, Yu S, Chen B, Yin J. An initial investigation of the association between the SARS outbreak and weather: With the view of the environmental temperature and its variation. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2005 Mar 1;59(3):186– 92.

Brassey J, Heneghan C, Mahtani KR. Do weather conditions influence the transmission of the coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2)? [Internet]. [cited 2020 May 11]. Available from: https://www.cebm.net/covid-19/do-weather-conditions-influence-the- transmission-of-the-coronavirus-sars-cov-2/

Hemmes JH, Winkler KC, Kool SM. Virus survival as a seasonal factor in influenza and poliomyelitis. Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek. 1962 Dec;28(1):221–33.

Yao Y, Pan J, Liu Z, Meng X, Wang WW, Kan H et al. No Association of COVID-19 transmission with temperature or UV radiation in Chinese cities. The European respiratory journal. NLM (Medline); 2020.

Epidemic theory (effective & basic reproduction numbers, epidemic thresholds) & techniques for analysis of infectious disease data (construction & use of epidemic curves, generation numbers, exceptional reporting & identification of significant clusters) [Internet]. 2020 [cited 2020 May 8]. Available from: https://www.healthknowledge.org.uk/public-health-textbook/research-methods/1a- epidemiology/epidemic-theory

Triplett M. Evidence that higher temperatures are associated with lower incidence of COVID-19 in pandemic state, cumulative cases reported up to March 27, 2020. medRxiv. 2020 Apr 12;2020.04.02.20051524.

Wang J, Tang K, Feng K, Lv W. High Temperature and High Humidity Reduce the Transmission of COVID-19. SSRN Electron J. 2020 Mar 11.

Wang M, Jiang A, Gong L, Luo L, Guo W, Li C et al. Temperature significant change COVID-19 Transmission in 429 cities. medRxiv [Internet]. 2020 Feb 25 [cited 2020 May 7];2020.02.22.20025791. Available from: http://medrxiv.org/content/early/2020/02/25/2020.02.22.20025791.abstract

Tobías A, Molina T. Is temperature reducing the transmission of COVID-19 ? Environ Res [Internet]. 2020 Jul 1 [cited 2020 May 7];186:109553. Available from: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0013935120304461

Holtmann M, Jones M, Shah A, Holtmann G. Low ambient temperatures are associated with more rapid spread of COVID-19 in the early phase of the endemic. Environ Res [Internet]. 2020 May 6 [cited 2020 May 7];109625. Available from: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0013935120305181

McMichael AJ, Wilkinson P, Kovats RS, Pattenden S, Hajat S, Armstrong B et al. International study of temperature, heat and urban mortality: the ‘ISOTHURM’ project. Int J Epidemiol [Internet]. 2008 Jun 3;37(5):1121–31. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyn086

Soares PMM, Cardoso RM, Miranda PMA, De Medeiros J, Belo-Pereira M, Espirito-Santo F. WRF high resolution dynamical downscaling of ERA-Interim for Portugal. Clim Dyn. 2012 Nov 1;39(9–10):2497–522.

Gunthe SS, Swain B, Patra SS, Amte A. On the global trends and spread of the COVID-19 outbreak: preliminary assessment of the potential relation between location-specific temperature and UV index [Internet]. Journal of Public Health (Germany). Springer; 2020 [cited 2020 May 13]. p. 1–10. Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32337151

Primeros indicios de correlación entre variables meteorológicas y propagación del coronavirus y la COVID-19 en España [Internet]. [cited 2020 May 13]. Available from: https://www.isciii.es/Noticias/Noticias/Paginas/Noticias/AcuerdoISCIIIAEMETEstudioTe mperaturasCOVID19.aspx

Meo SA, Abukhalaf AA, Alomar AA, Sumaya OY, Sami W, Shafi KM et al. Effect of heat and humidity on the incidence and mortality due to COVID-19 pandemic in European countries. Eur Rev Med Pharmacol Sci [Internet]. 2020 Sep [cited 2020 Sep 29];24(17):9216–25. Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32965017

WHO. COVID-19 is not just seasonal, cautions WHO, as ‘first wave’ continues | | UN News [Internet]. [cited 2020 Sep 29]. Available from: https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/07/1069111

Cui Y, Zhang ZF, Froines J, Zhao J, Wang H, Yu SZ et al. Air pollution and case fatality of SARS in the People’s Republic of China: an ecologic study. Environ Heal [Internet]. 2003 Dec 20 [cited 2020 May 7];2(1):15. Available from http://ehjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1476-069X-2-15

API - Air Quality Programmatic APIs [Internet]. [cited 2020 May 11]. Available from: http://aqicn.org/api/

Martelletti L, Martelletti P. Air Pollution and the Novel Covid-19 Disease: a Putative Disease Risk Factor. SN Compr Clin Med [Internet]. 2020 Apr 15 [cited 2020 May 7];2(4):383–7. Available from: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s42399-020-00274-4

Ciencewicki J, Jaspers I. Air pollution and respiratory viral infection [Internet]. Vol. 19, Inhalation Toxicology. 2007 [cited 2020 May 7]. p. 1135–46. Available from: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08958370701665434

SIMA - Società Italiana di Medicina Ambientale | Italiaambiente [Internet]. [cited 2020 May 11]. Available from: https://www.italiaambiente.it/sima-societa-italiana-di- medicina-ambientale/

Setti L, Rizzo -Società E, Medicina I, Alessandro A, Italiana MS, Ambientale M. Relazione circa l’effetto dell’inquinamento da particolato atmosferico e la diffusione di virus nella popolazione.

Ogen Y. Assessing nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels as a contributing factor to coronavirus (COVID-19) fatality. Sci Total Environ [Internet]. 2020 Jul 15 [cited 2020 Sep 29];726. Available from: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32302812/

Conticini E, Frediani B, Caro D. Can atmospheric pollution be considered a co-factor in extremely high level of SARS-CoV-2 lethality in Northern Italy? [Internet]. Vol. 261, Environmental Pollution. Elsevier Ltd; 2020 [cited 2020 Sep 29]. p. 114465. Available from: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0269749120320601

Liu C, Chen R, Sera F, Vicedo-Cabrera AM, Guo Y, Tong S et al. Ambient Particulate Air Pollution and Daily Mortality in 652 Cities. N Engl J Med [Internet]. 2019 Aug 22 [cited 2020 Sep 29];381(8):705–15. Available from: http://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMoa1817364

Triplett M. Evidence that higher temperatures are associated with lower incidence of COVID-19 in pandemic state, cumulative cases reported up to March 27, 2020. medRxiv. 2020 Apr 12;2020.04.02.20051524.

Published

2021-01-20

How to Cite

1.
Salamanca-Fernández E, Rodríguez Barranco M, Sánchez MJ. Influence of environmental temperature and air pollution on the transmission of SARS-CoV-2: e202101003. Rev Esp Salud Pública [Internet]. 2021 Jan. 20 [cited 2024 Nov. 5];95:8 páginas. Available from: https://ojs.sanidad.gob.es/index.php/resp/article/view/486