A Molecular Communication Perspective on Airborne Pathogen Transmission and Reception via Droplets Generated by Coughing and Sneezing

TL;DR

This paper models airborne pathogen transmission via droplets from coughing and sneezing using a molecular communication framework, analyzing infection probability and effects of social distance and cough angle.

Contribution

It introduces a novel end-to-end system model for airborne pathogen spread considering physical droplet dynamics and human reception, with infection probability analysis.

Findings

Exposure time increases infection probability.

Sex influences susceptibility to infection.

Social distancing of at least 1.7 m reduces infection risk.

Abstract

Infectious diseases spread via pathogens such as viruses and bacteria. Airborne pathogen transmission via droplets is an important mode for infectious diseases. In this paper, the spreading mechanism of infectious diseases by airborne pathogen transmission between two humans is modeled with a molecular communication perspective. An end-to-end system model which considers the pathogen-laden cough/sneeze droplets as the input and the infection state of the human as the output is proposed. This model uses the gravity, initial velocity and buoyancy for the propagation of droplets and a receiver model which considers the central part of the human face as the reception interface is proposed. Furthermore, the probability of infection for an uninfected human is derived by modeling the number of propagating droplets as a random process. The numerical results reveal that exposure time and sex of the human affect the probability of infection. In addition, the social distance for a horizontal cough should be at least 1.7 m and the safe coughing angle of a coughing human to infect less people should be less than -25$^\circ$.