Fast Air-to-Liquid Sampler Detects Surges in SARS-CoV-2 Aerosol Levels in Hospital Rooms

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the dangers of airborne pathogen transmission. SARS-CoV-2 is known to be transmitted through aerosols; however, little is known about the dynamics of these aerosols in real environments, the conditions, and the minimum viral load required for infection. Efficiently...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of environmental research and public health 2022-12, Vol.20 (1), p.576
Main Authors: Del Álamo, Cristina, Vázquez-Calvo, Ángela, Sanchiz, África, Rodríguez-Caravaca, Gil, Martín, Rocío, Hernáez, Bruno, Méndez-Vigo-Carranza, Pablo, Sánchez García-Casarrubios, Juan, Alcamí, Antonio, Pérez-Díaz, José Luis
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aerosols
Bioaerosols
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
Decision making
Disease transmission
Efficiency
Field study
Hospitals
Humans
Infections
Laboratories
Pandemics
Pathogens
Respiratory Aerosols and Droplets
RNA, Viral
Samplers
SARS-CoV-2
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
Viral diseases
Viruses
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the dangers of airborne pathogen transmission. SARS-CoV-2 is known to be transmitted through aerosols; however, little is known about the dynamics of these aerosols in real environments, the conditions, and the minimum viral load required for infection. Efficiently measuring and capturing pathogens present in the air would help to understand the infection process. Air samplers usually take several hours to obtain an air sample. In this work a fast (1-2 min) method for capturing bioaerosols into a liquid medium has been tested in hospital rooms with COVID-19 patients. This fast sampling allows detecting transient levels of aerosols in the air. SARS-CoV-2 RNA is detected in aerosols from several hospital rooms at different levels. Interestingly, there are sudden boosts of the SARS-CoV-2 load in the air, suggesting that SARS-CoV-2 could be released abundantly at certain moments. These results show that the distribution of SARS-CoV-2-containing aerosols is not homogeneous in the hospital room. This technology is a fast and effective tool for capturing airborne matter in a very short time, which allows for fast decision-making any kind of hazard in the air is detected. It is also useful for a better understanding of aerosols dynamics.
ISSN:1660-4601
1661-7827
1660-4601
DOI:10.3390/ijerph20010576