The new study was carried out by scientists at the University of Nebraska.
Washington, United States:
Scientists have known for several months that the novel coronavirus can be suspended in microdroplets expelled by patients when they speak and breathe, but so far there has been no evidence that these tiny particles are infectious.
A new study by scientists at the University of Nebraska that was uploaded to a medical preprint site this week showed for the first time that SARS-CoV-2 collected from microdroplets, defined as less than five microns, can replicate under laboratory conditions.
This reinforces the hypothesis that normal speech and breathing, and not just coughing and sneezing, are responsible for the spread of COVID-19 – and that infectious doses of the virus can travel distances well over six feet ( two meters) recommended by the social distancing guidelines. .
The results are still considered preliminary and have not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal, which would give more credibility to the methods developed by the scientists.
The document was posted to the medrxiv.org website, where most of the cutting edge research during the pandemic was first made public.
The same team wrote an article in March showing that the virus remains airborne in the rooms of COVID-19 hospital patients, and this study will soon be published in a journal, according to the lead author.
“It is actually quite difficult” to collect the samples, Joshua Santarpia, associate professor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, told AFP.
The team used a device the size of a cell phone for this purpose, but “the concentrations are generally very low, your chances of recovering material are low.”
Scientists took air samples from five rooms of bedridden patients, at a height of about one foot above the foot of their bed.
Patients would talk, which produced microdroplets that hung in the air for several hours in what is called an “aerosol”, and some were coughing.
The team managed to collect microdroplets as small as a micron in diameter.
They then placed these samples in a culture to grow them, finding that three of the 18 samples tested were able to replicate.
For Santarpia, this represents proof that microdroplets, which also travel much greater distances than large droplets, are capable of infecting humans.
“It is replicated in cell culture and therefore infectious,” he said.
Why we wear masks
The potential for microdroplet transmission of the coronavirus was at one time considered unlikely by health authorities around the world.
Later, scientists began to change their minds and recognize that this could be a possibility, which justifies universal masking.
The World Health Organization was among the last to change its position on July 7.
“I have a feeling that the debate has become more political than scientific,” Santarpia said.
“I think most infectious disease scientists agree that there is probably an airborne component, although we may wonder how big it is.”
Linsey Marr, a professor at Virginia Tech who is a leading expert on airborne virus transmission and was not involved in the study, said it was rare to get measurements of how much virus was present. in the air.
“Based on what we know about other diseases and what we know so far about SARS-CoV-2, I think we can assume that if the virus is ‘infectious in aerosols’ then we can get infected by breathing them in, “she told AFP.
(With the exception of the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
