tetano
Editor, Senior Moderator
PLoS One
. 2024 Nov 22;19(11):e0314002.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0314002. eCollection 2024. Risk of infection due to airborne virus in classroom environments lacking mechanical ventilation
Alexandra Goldblatt[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Michael J Loccisano[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Mazharul I Mahe[SUP] 1 [/SUP], John J Dennehy[SUP] 1 2 [/SUP], Fabrizio Spagnolo[SUP] 3 [/SUP]
Affiliations
The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the role of indoor environments on disease transmission. However, our understanding of how transmission occurred evolved as the pandemic progressed. Enclosed spaces where pathogen-laden aerosols accumulate were strongly linked to increased transmission events. Most classrooms, particulalry in the U.S., do not have any mechanical ventilation systems but do have many people congregating indoors for long periods of time. Here we employ a safe, non-pathogenic surrogate virus, the bacteriophage phi6, to interrogate aerosol transmission in classroom environments that do not have any natural or mechanical ventilation in order to provide baseline understanding of how effectively aerosols facilitate new infections. We measure exposure risk using a modified passive monitoring technique compliant with applicable standards, including ISO 14698-1:2003. We find that virus-laden aerosols establish new infections over all distances tested within minutes and that the time of exposure did not change transmission rate. We further find that relative humidity, but not temperature nor a UV-based disinfection device, significantly lowered transmission rates. Our data suggest that, even without mechanical ventilation, relative humidity remains an inexpensive and highly effective mitigation strategy while UV air treatment may not.
. 2024 Nov 22;19(11):e0314002.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0314002. eCollection 2024. Risk of infection due to airborne virus in classroom environments lacking mechanical ventilation
Alexandra Goldblatt[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Michael J Loccisano[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Mazharul I Mahe[SUP] 1 [/SUP], John J Dennehy[SUP] 1 2 [/SUP], Fabrizio Spagnolo[SUP] 3 [/SUP]
Affiliations
- PMID: 39576765
- PMCID: PMC11584072
- DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0314002
The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the role of indoor environments on disease transmission. However, our understanding of how transmission occurred evolved as the pandemic progressed. Enclosed spaces where pathogen-laden aerosols accumulate were strongly linked to increased transmission events. Most classrooms, particulalry in the U.S., do not have any mechanical ventilation systems but do have many people congregating indoors for long periods of time. Here we employ a safe, non-pathogenic surrogate virus, the bacteriophage phi6, to interrogate aerosol transmission in classroom environments that do not have any natural or mechanical ventilation in order to provide baseline understanding of how effectively aerosols facilitate new infections. We measure exposure risk using a modified passive monitoring technique compliant with applicable standards, including ISO 14698-1:2003. We find that virus-laden aerosols establish new infections over all distances tested within minutes and that the time of exposure did not change transmission rate. We further find that relative humidity, but not temperature nor a UV-based disinfection device, significantly lowered transmission rates. Our data suggest that, even without mechanical ventilation, relative humidity remains an inexpensive and highly effective mitigation strategy while UV air treatment may not.