Susceptibility of monkeypox virus aerosol suspensions in a rotating chamber

Abstract

Summary Viral aerosols can have a major impact on public health and on the dynamics of infection. Once aerosolized, viruses are subjected to various stress factors and their integrity and potential of infectivity can be altered. Empirical characterization is needed in order to predict more accurately the fate of these bioaerosols both for short term and long term suspension in the air. Here the susceptibility to aerosolization of the monkeypox virus (MPXV), associated with emerging zoonotic diseases, was studied using a 10.7 liter rotating chamber. This chamber was built to fit inside a Class three biological safety cabinet, specifically for studying airborne biosafety level three (BSL3) microorganisms. Airborne viruses were detected by culture and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) after up to 90 hours of aging. Viral concentrations detected dropped by two logs for culture analysis and by one log for qPCR analysis within the first 18 hours of aging; viral concentrations were stable between 18 and 90 hours, suggesting a potential for the MPXV to retain infectivity in aerosols for more than 90 hours. The rotating chamber used in this study maintained viral particles airborne successfully for prolonged periods and could be used to study the susceptibility of other BSL3 microorganisms.

Persistence of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 in Aerosol Suspensions

“…Aerosol suspension results suggest that SARS-CoV-2 persists longer than would be expected when generated as this size particle (2-µm mass median aerodynamic diameter). This finding is notable because decay and loss in the infectious fraction of airborne virus would be expected on the basis of prior susceptibility studies with other environmentally hardy viruses, such as monkeypox virus ( 5 ). A recent study ( 6 ) showing only a slight reduction of infectivity in aerosol suspensions with approximately similar particle sizes also suggested minimal effects on SARS-CoV-2 airborne degradation.…”

Design of an environmentally controlled rotating chamber for bioaerosol aging studies

“…The first modification was the use of stationary access inlet ports used in an earlier study (Verreault et al, 2013) and similar to the configuration used by others (Santarpia et al, 2012). These access ports allow aerosol generation and sampling procedures to take place without necessitating the need to stop rotation of the chamber.…”

Evaluation of altered environmental conditions as a decontamination approach for nonspore‐forming biological agents

“…Previous studies have examined the persistence (or natural attenuation) of nonspore‐forming bacteria (King et al ; Aune et al ; Calfee and Wendling ; USEPA ; Gut et al ) and viral select agents (Berendt and Dorsey ; Lai et al ; Graiver et al ; Sagripanti et al ; Yamamoto et al ; Pyankov et al ; Verreault et al ; Brown et al ) and have shown the ability of these agents to persist in various matrices or altered states (lyophilization) for months, however, many of these studies did not detail the effects when applied to common building fomites.…”