Lars Anderson
Research Mentor: Ke Zhang
Mentor Department: Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, Engineering
Author(s): Not Available
Session: Session 1 (9:00 AM – 9:50 AM)
Presentation Type: Poster 26
Abstract
Infectious respiratory viruses, particularly the influenza A virus, are a threat to public health every year. Environmental surveillance of these viruses in indoor environments is used to monitor the circulation of the virus and develop mitigation strategies that reduce the virus’s transmission. However, interpretation of the surveillance data is limited by incomplete knowledge of the environmental persistence of the viruses on indoor surfaces. The purpose of this study is to better understand environmental surveillance data by analyzing the effect that different relative humidity (RH) conditions have on the viruses. We incubated influenza A virus samples on the surface of environmental chambers that mimicked indoor environments with four different relative humidity conditions: 23%, 54%, 85%, and a varied RH condition. We then recovered the viruses from the surface into solutions, extracted viral RNA from the solutions using a viral RNA extraction kit, and quantified the concentrations of the RNA with droplet digital polymerase chain reaction (ddPCR). Virus samples that were exposed to the constant RH values of 23%, 54%, and 85% exhibited stable concentrations over time, whereas the samples that were exposed to the varied RH showed a significant decrease in concentration. These findings suggest that the presence of influenza viruses are dependent upon the stability of the RH that the virus is exposed to, and not the specific RH condition. Based on the findings of this research, we can correct viral environmental surveillance data sets with respect to the environments that the viruses are prevalent in, to understand the transmission of the viruses within public spaces and develop viral mitigation strategies.
