A new chapter of healthy indoor air: antiviral air treatments

Aerosol transmission remains a major challenge for the control of respiratory viruses. To date, prevention strategies include masks, vaccinations, physical distancing, travel restrictions, and lockdowns. Such measures are effective but come with heavy societal burdens and rely on public compliance. Additionally, most are simply not suitable as long-term measures. Other strategies evolve around the concept of improved indoor air quality and involve ventilation, relative humidity (RH) control, and air filtration. Unfortunately, natural ventilation increases exposure to airborne pollutants and vector-borne diseases, and incurs substantial energy losses in colder months. Mechanical ventilation concepts, including regular air changes and filtration, are effective but costly, and often require expensive engineering solutions and widespread renovations. Alternative options to reduce the spread of emerging and seasonal infections are sorely needed. In this issue of EMBO Molecular Medicine, Styles et al (2023) describe the use of propylene glycol (PG) to inactivate infectious bioaerosols and virus-containing droplets deposited on surfaces.