Traces of coronavirus found in drops of hospital aerosols – Science

TASS, April 27th. Chinese scientists have discovered many new-type coronavirus RNA fragments in aerosol droplets inside Wuhan hospitals, the city where the epidemic began. This indicates that the disease that the virus causes can spread by aerosol, scientists write in a scientific journal. Nature.

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“We did not check whether such aerosols can infect humans. However, we assume that they represent another channel for the transmission of the virus. On the other hand, our observations show that personal protective equipment, ventilation and regular disinfection of rooms significantly reduce the concentration of SARS- CoV-2 in aerosol particles, “the researchers write.

From the first days after the outbreak of a new type of coronavirus, scientists are trying to understand how this pathogen spreads. Biologists initially suggested that SARS-CoV-2 can only be transmitted by direct body contact, similar to the causative agents of SARS SARS and Middle Eastern fever, MERS, but later it turned out that this is not so.

Now scientists know that the causative agent of coronavirus infection can be transmitted from person to person through direct contact and by airborne droplets, as well as through contact with infected objects. In addition, many Chinese experts and their European counterparts suggest that the virus can enter the aerosol droplets exhaled by SARS-CoV-2 carriers and enter other people’s lungs with them.

A new way to spread the virus

Biologists from Wuhan, Hong Kong, and other Chinese cities have tested this theory. They analyzed aerosol samples collected by doctors from the Wuhan People’s Hospital and the field hospital, which they built in the first days after the outbreak of coronavirus infection in the PRC.

Doctors collected such microdroplets of liquid not only in the wards where the carriers of the virus were hospitalized, but also in other parts of the hospital, including in corridors, toilets, doctors’ offices and in other places where the virus should not enter.

Analysis of the samples showed that the fragments of the RNA of the virus were initially in all of these rooms. This was especially true for crowded places, toilets and those rooms where doctors changed clothes. Scraps of the SARS-CoV-2 genome were found in both small and large aerosol particles, but most of them were in droplets 0.25-0.5 micrometers in diameter.

After the introduction of strict sanitary measures, taking into account these features of SARS-CoV-2, the concentration of viral particles sharply decreased in all parts of hospitals, which, scientists hope, was one of the reasons why Chinese doctors managed to quickly stop the spread of coronavirus infection in Wuhan and the province Hubei.

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