Mitigation of ventilation-based resuspension and spread of airborne viruses in nosocomial and healthcare settings

项目总结/摘要 从受感染的人或动物到新宿主的病毒传播可以通过直接或间接途径发生。 在间接传播过程中，受污染的表面可能发挥重要作用。虽然有一些 对于医疗机构中的疾病传播方法，空气传播通常被认为是重要的 许多生物的路线。病原体从源头到受体或表面的空中路径， 它们在撞击后的生存能力受到许多因素的影响，包括室内空气交换率和空气特性 这可能会进一步挑战气溶胶化的生物颗粒，包括病毒。因为通风系统实际上 普遍存在于建筑环境中，空气特性对气溶胶的传染性和运输的影响 病毒是研究减少传染性病毒颗粒传播的重要课题。 拟议中的项目是已知的第一个关于环境条件影响的全面研究 包括温度、湿度和空气速度对液滴大小、扩散和 空气传播病毒的沉积/再悬浮。优化环境条件， 改进的通风设计或缓解策略可以显著减少 活的传染性病毒。PI之前已经表明，结合建模和 采样方法成功地减轻了通风设施中空气传播的传染性微生物的传播 该提案的目的是了解环境条件对传输、沉积 并提供切实可行的措施，以减少其在 医院和医疗机构的通风气流。我们将通过以下方式来实现这一目标： 用生物层干涉测量、分子动力学和计算气流收集β冠状病毒气溶胶 模型试验和现场测试中的建模。研究计划基于三个基本问题 约1）环境条件和表面特性对颗粒尺寸分布，沉积， 以及使用生物层干涉测量法、分子动力学建模和 计算流模拟，以可视化3比例模型医院房间中的气流模式。阐明 活病毒沉积和再悬浮之间的关系是开发减少 通过空气传播病毒; 2）使用生物气溶胶收集器来确定速率， 通过细胞培养分析，气溶胶化病毒可以在不同的环境条件下传播， 定量聚合酶链反应（qPCR）;以及3）基于优化通气的缓解措施如何能够 适用于医院设置。这一创新项目将有助于开发和实施跨学科 通风设计指南，以教育科学家和工程师关于生物气溶胶传输和环境 对病毒传播的影响，以提高对传染病的认识， 设计、管理和监控医疗设施和其他建筑环境。

Project Summary/Abstract Viral transmission from an infected person or an animal to a new host can occur by direct or indirect routes. During indirect transmission, contaminated surfaces can play an important role. Although there are a number of methods for disease transmission in healthcare facilities, aerial transmission is often considered an important route for many organisms. The aerial path followed by pathogens from the source to recipients or surfaces and their viability upon impaction is affected by many factors, including room air exchange rates and air properties that may further challenge aerosolized bioparticles, including viruses. As ventilation systems are practically ubiquitous in the build environment, the effect of air properties on the infectivity and transport of aerosolized viruses is an important topic for study to reduce the spread of infectious viral particles. The proposed project is the first known comprehensive study on the impact of environmental conditions including temperature, humidity, and air velocity on the droplet size, spread, and deposition/resuspension of airborne viruses. The optimization of environmental conditions that lead to improved ventilation designs or mitigation strategies could significantly reduce the entrainment and spread of viable infectious viruses in the built environment. The PIs' have previously shown that a combined modeling and sampling approach is successful to mitigate transport of airborne infectious microorganisms in a ventilated facility The goal of this proposal is to understand the effect of environmental conditions on the transmission, deposition and resuspension of aerosolized virus particles and provide realistic measures to reduce their spread in the ventilation airflow in nosocomial and healthcare settings. The proposed goal will be achieved by combining betacoronavirus aerosol collection with biolayer interferometry, molecular dynamics and computational airflow modeling in model experiments and field testing. The research plan is based on three fundamental questions about 1) the effect of environmental conditions and surface characteristics on the size distribution, deposition, and resuspension of virus aerosols using biolayer interferometry, molecular dynamics modeling and computational flow simulation to visualize the airflow patterns in a 3 scale model hospital room. Elucidating the relationship between viable virus deposition and resuspension is the key for developing means to reduce transmission of viruses through airborne exposure; 2) using bioaerosol collectors to determine the rate and distance aerosolized viruses can spread in different environmental conditions analyzed by cell culture and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR); and 3) how mitigation efforts based on optimized ventilation can be applied to hospital settings. This innovative project will help develop and implement interdisciplinary ventilation design guidelines to educate scientists and engineers about bioaerosol transport and environmental effects on the spread of viruses in an effort to improve understanding of infectious disease considerations in design, management, and monitoring of healthcare facilities and other built environment.