학술논문
Frequency, kinetics and determinants of viable SARS-CoV-2 in bioaerosols from ambulatory COVID-19 patients infected with the Beta, Delta or Omicron variants.
Document Type
article
Author
Jaumdally, S; Tomasicchio, M; Pooran, A; Esmail, A; Kotze, A; Meier, S; Wilson, L; Oelofse, S; van der Merwe, C; Roomaney, A; Davids, M; Suliman, T; Joseph, R; Perumal, T; Scott, A; Shaw, M; Preiser, W; Williamson, C; Goga, A; Mayne, E; Gray, G; Moore, P; Sigal, A; Metcalfe, J; Dheda, K; Limberis, Jason
Source
Nature Communications. 15(1)
Subject
Language
Abstract
Airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2 aerosol remains contentious. Importantly, whether cough or breath-generated bioaerosols can harbor viable and replicating virus remains largely unclarified. We performed size-fractionated aerosol sampling (Andersen cascade impactor) and evaluated viral culturability in human cell lines (infectiousness), viral genetics, and host immunity in ambulatory participants with COVID-19. Sixty-one percent (27/44) and 50% (22/44) of participants emitted variant-specific culture-positive aerosols 95%). There is considerable heterogeneity in potential infectiousness i.e., only 29% of participants were probably highly infectious (produced culture-positive aerosols