BREAKING! COVID-19 News: Study Shows Influenza Viruses Can Spread Thru Air Via Aerosolized Fomites Or Dust Particles. Shocking Implications For COVID-19
COVID-19 News: According to new study from the University of California-Davis and the Icahn School of Medicine-Mt. Sinai influenza viruses can spread through the air on dust, fibers, and other microscopic particles.
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The research findings have shocking obvious implications for SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus transmission as well. Many medical experts and researchers are concerned about the new findings as it means that the novel coronavirus has a far and more efficient method of spreading.
The peer-reviewed findings were published a few minutes ago today in the journal: Nature Communications.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-17888-w
Professor William Ristenpart of the University of California-Davis Department of Chemical Engineering, who lead the research, told Thailand Medical News, “It is really shocking to most virologists and epidemiologists that airborne dust, rather than expiratory droplets, can carry influenza virus capable of infecting animals and humans. The implicit assumption is always that airborne transmission occurs because of respiratory droplets emitted by coughing, sneezing, or talking. Transmission via dust opens up whole new areas of investigation and has profound implications for how we interpret laboratory experiments as well as epidemiological investigations of outbreaks.”
In the past Influenza virus is thought to spread by several different routes, including in droplets exhaled from the respiratory tract or on secondary objects such as door handles or used tissues. These secondary objects are called fomites. Yet little is known about which routes are the most important.
However the answer may be different for different strains of influenza virus or for other respiratory viruses, including coronaviruses such as SARS-CoV2.
For this new research, University of California-Davis engineering graduate student Sima Asadi and Ristenpart teamed up with virologists and medical experts led by Dr Nicole Bouvier from Icahn School of Medicine-Mt. Sinai to look at whether tiny, non-respiratory particles they call “aerosolized fomites” could carry influenza virus between guinea pigs.
By utilizing an automated particle sizer to count airborne particles, the study team found that uninfected guinea pigs give off spikes of up to 1,000 particles per second as they move around the cage. Particles given off by the animals’ breathing were at a constant, much lower rate.
Significantly, it was observed that immune guinea pigs with influenza virus painted on their fur could transmit the virus through the air to other, susceptible guinea pigs, showing that the virus did not have to come directly from the respiratory tract to be infectious.
Also the study team tested whether microscopic fibers from an inanimate object could carry infectious viruses. They treated paper facial tissues with influenza virus, let them dry out, and then crumpled them in front of the automated particle sizer. Crumpling the tissues released up to 900 particles per second in a size range that could be inhaled, they found. They were also able to infect cells from these particles released from the virus-contaminated paper tissues.
These stud
y findings show that dried influenza virus remains viable in the environment, on materials like paper tissues and on the bodies of living animals, long enough to be aerosolized on non-respiratory dust particles that can transmit infection through the air to new mammalian hosts.
The new study findings have frightening implications for the spread of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that causes the deadly COVID-19 disease.
While this study has just been released, another hypothesis is also being explored and studied which is based on new studies that shows the spike proteins of the coronavirus is able to ‘fold’ or change shape.(
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/breaking-covid-19-latest-study-reveals-that-sars-cov-2-spike-protein-has-shape-shifting-ability-to-evade-immune-attacks-and-to-ensure-its-survival )
The new hypothesis which is not validated yet is that these folding allow the virus to remain in a kind of inert state or ‘incubation state’ to withstand harsh conditions for longer periods outside in extracellular settings till it finds a new suitable host.
Thailand Medical News will provide updates on that study as well.
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