SNEEZING/COUGHING?

EXPERIENCING COLD/FLU SYMPTOMS?

**You may be eligible to participate in this ongoing 2020 study:**

TO VOLUNTEER: CLICK HERE!

SNEEZING/COUGHING? WITH COLD/FLU SYMPTOMS? YOU ARE NEEDED!

Common respiratory diseases such as influenza, caused by a family of RNA viruses, continue to induce a major burden on the US and the world, causing three to five million cases per year with severe cases amounting to more than 500,000 deaths yearly among the most vulnerable groups and communities. The most famous flu pandemic of the 1918 killed as much as the two world wars combined. With the ongoing 2019-CoV outbreak, it is evermore important to elucidate fundamental questions of respiratory transmission. Indeed, at the heart of this problem is the transmission between individuals, which remains poorly understood.

Human volunteers are critical for scientific advances. If you have flu or cold-like symptoms, your involvement in this research can allow to greatly improve our understanding of disease transmission, and help stop epidemics.

**You may be eligible to participate in this ongoing 2020 study:**

TO VOLUNTEER: CLICK HERE!

Also mention your interest in enrolling in this study to your Health Care Provider at MIT Medical or Urgent Care if you are there as you read this.

We wish you a speedy recovery!

Background:

Our research at The Fluid Dynamics of Disease Transmission Laboratory, MIT, focuses on a neglected aspect of infectious disease control and prevention: the characterization of the mechanistic dynamics of transmission examining how pathogens spread from one host to the next in fluid phases. Fundamental mechanistic understanding is critical to make major leaps forward in control of transmission.

Previously, we showed that contrary to prior beliefs; sneezes and coughs are multiphase turbulent clouds including a continuum of droplet sizes. This new physical insight is critical to avoid under-estimating transmission risk indoors and to enable design of new protocols and technologies for pathogen containment in hospitals, buses, schools, airplanes, etc. In this phase of research, we focus on measurements from human subjects that are symptomatic.