Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2009 May;9(5):291-300.
doi: 10.1016/S1473-3099(09)70069-6.

Incubation periods of acute respiratory viral infections: a systematic review

Justin Lessler  1 , Nicholas G Reich, Ron Brookmeyer, Trish M Perl, Kenrad E Nelson, Derek A T Cummings
Affiliations
Review

Incubation periods of acute respiratory viral infections: a systematic review

Justin Lessler et al. Lancet Infect Dis. 2009 May.

Abstract

Knowledge of the incubation period is essential in the investigation and control of infectious disease, but statements of incubation period are often poorly referenced, inconsistent, or based on limited data. In a systematic review of the literature on nine respiratory viral infections of public-health importance, we identified 436 articles with statements of incubation period and 38 with data for pooled analysis. We fitted a log-normal distribution to pooled data and found the median incubation period to be 5.6 days (95% CI 4.8-6.3) for adenovirus, 3.2 days (95% CI 2.8-3.7) for human coronavirus, 4.0 days (95% CI 3.6-4.4) for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus, 1.4 days (95% CI 1.3-1.5) for influenza A, 0.6 days (95% CI 0.5-0.6) for influenza B, 12.5 days (95% CI 11.8-13.3) for measles, 2.6 days (95% CI 2.1-3.1) for parainfluenza, 4.4 days (95% CI 3.9-4.9) for respiratory syncytial virus, and 1.9 days (95% CI 1.4-2.4) for rhinovirus. When using the incubation period, it is important to consider its full distribution: the right tail for quarantine policy, the central regions for likely times and sources of infection, and the full distribution for models used in pandemic planning. Our estimates combine published data to give the detail necessary for these and other applications.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Systematic review process
Figure 2
Figure 2
Parametric and non-parametric estimates of the incubation period Cumulative percentage of cases developing symptoms by a given day under the estimates for the log-normal distribution (continuous line) are shown, compared with the non-parametric estimates calculated by the method of Turnbull (rectangles). Rectangular regions represent estimates with equivalent support (ie, not statistically distinguishable). RSV=respiratory syncytial virus. SARS=severe acute respiratory syndrome.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Graham NM. The epidemiology of acute respiratory infections in children and adults: a global perspective. Epidemiol Rev. 1990;12:149–178. - PubMed
    1. WHO . The world health report 2004—changing history. World Health Organization; Geneva: 2004.
    1. Mandell GL, Dolin R, Bennett JE. Principles and practice of infectious disease. Elsevier/Churchill Livingstone; New York: 2005.
    1. Cohen J, Powderly WG. Infectious diseases. 2nd edn. Mosby; New York: 2004.
    1. Nelson KE, Williams CM. Infectious disease epidemiology, theory and practice. Jones & Bartlett Publishers; Sudbury, MA: 2006.

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources

-