Audrey Penrod
Research Mentor: Ke Zhang
Mentor Department: Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, Engineering
Author(s): Ke Zhang, Audrey Penrod
Session: Session 5 (2:00 PM – 2:50 PM)
Presentation Type: Poster 56
Abstract
Studies suggest that 3% to 11% of Americans contact influenza virus each year. To understand the transmission of respiratory viruses (e.g. influenza virus) in the indoor environment, we used the bacteriophage MS2 as a surrogate to understand the decay of the viruses. We incubated MS2 on a typical surface (i.e., glass) in an environmental chamber that mimics the indoor humidity conditions, which range from 23% to 85% relative humidity. After incubation, we recovered the viruses from the surfaces into solution and measured infectivity by plaque assay. Our data shows that MS2 is more persistent in 23% relative humidity (RH), which is more relevant to dry winter indoor conditions. In comparison, MS2 is less persistent in moderate to more humid conditions, including levels of 54% and 85% RH, which are more reflective of summer indoor conditions. We also found that bacteriophage MS2 decayed faster in diversified RH conditions and decayed slower in constant RH conditions. Our data on MS2 may explain the differing seasonal transmission and help us to develop mitigation strategies to decrease transmission of the respiratory viruses. In addition, our study suggests varied RH conditions might be a potential effective engineering strategy free of infectious chemicals to inactivate respiratory viruses.
