‘Aerosol and Surface Stability’ study shows that the virus can remain infectious in aerosol form for hours and on surfaces for days
By now, clinical laboratory workers, microbiologists, and phlebotomists should be fully aware of the potential for transmission on surfaces of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the novel coronavirus that causes Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The CDC’s latest Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report revealed that the coronavirus “was identified on a variety of surfaces in cabins of both symptomatic and asymptomatic infected passengers up to 17 days after cabins were vacated on the Diamond Princess, but before disinfection procedures had been conducted,” the New York Post reported. That means the virus can survive on surfaces significantly longer than CDC previously believed.
But did you know a recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) found that SARS-CoV-2 can also survive in the air for many hours, potentially allowing aerosolized transmission of the virus as well?
The NEJM study also showed that the stability of SARS-CoV-2 to survive on surfaces and in aerosolized form mirrors the stability of the SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV) that caused the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak of 2003.
This is critically important information for clinical laboratory professionals in open-space laboratories, phlebotomists collecting medical laboratory specimens, and frontline healthcare workers who come in direct contact with potentially infected patients. They should be aware of every potential COVID-19 transmission pathway.
Hospital infection control teams will be particularly interested in the possibility of airborne transmission, as they often visit infected patients and are tasked with tracking both the source of the infection as well as individuals who may be exposed to sick patients.
The NEJM study, titled “Aerosol and Surface Stability of SARS-CoV-2 as Compared with SARS-CoV-1” was conducted by scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), an agency of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Princeton University, and University of California, Los Angeles. The researchers concluded that SARS-CoV-2 remains in the air “up to three hours post aerosolization.”
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They also found the virus was detectable for up to four hours on copper and up to 24 hours on cardboard. The scientists concluded SARS-CoV-2 can remain on plastic and stainless-steel surfaces for two to three days, though the amount of the virus on surfaces decreases over time.
“Our results indicate that aerosol and fomite transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is plausible, since the virus can remain viable and infectious in aerosols for hours and on surfaces up to days,” the study states. “These findings echo those with SARS-CoV-1, in which these forms of transmission were associated with nosocomial spread and super-spreading events, and they provide information for pandemic mitigation efforts.”
But Can COVID-19 Be Caught Through Air?
However, as noted in Wired, the researchers did not clearly state that infected persons can spread COVID-19 to others in the same airspace. Some experts have pointed out that there is a difference between a virus that can exist as an aerosol—defined as a liquid or solid suspended in gas under only limited conditions—and the measles virus, for example, which the CDC estimates “can live for up two hours in an airspace where the infected person has coughed or sneezed.”
“While the researchers tested how long the virus can survive in aerosols suspended in the air, they didn’t actually sample the air around infected people,” Wired noted. “Instead, they put the virus into a nebulizer and puffed it into a rotating drum to keep it airborne. Then, they tested how long the virus could survive in the air inside the drum.”
Neeltje van Doremalen, PhD, a research fellow at National Institutes of Health (NIH) and researcher at the NIAID’s Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, Montana, who coauthored the NEJM study, cautioned against an overreaction to this latest research. On Twitter she wrote, “Important: we experimentally generated [COVID-19] aerosols and kept them afloat in a drum. This is not evidence of aerosol transmission.”
Nonetheless, the World House Organization (WHO) took note of the study’s findings and on March 16, 2020, announced it was considering “airborne precautions” for healthcare workers, CNBC reported in its coverage of a virtual press conference on March 16, 2020, led by Maria Van Kerkhove, MS, PhD, Technical Lead for WHO’s Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) Task Force.
Van Kerkhove emphasized that health officials were monitoring results from other studies investigating how environmental conditions such as humidity, temperature, and ultraviolet light affect the disease and its ability to live on different surfaces.
To Be or Not to Be an Airborne Pathogen
Stanley Perlman, MD, PhD, Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Iowa, believes aerosol transmission ultimately will be found not to play a large role in COVID-19 transmission.
“I think the answer will be, aerosolization occurs rarely, but not never,” Perlman told STAT. “You have to distinguish between what’s possible and what’s actually happening.”
In an NEJM editorial, Perlman expanded on those thoughts. “Although specific anti-coronaviral therapies are still in development, we now know much more about how to control such infections in the community and hospitals, which should alleviate some of this fear,” he wrote. “Transmission of [SARS-CoV-2] probably occurs by means of large droplets and contact and less so by means of aerosols and fomites, on the basis of our experience with SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV. Public health measures, including quarantining in the community as well as timely diagnosis and strict adherence to universal precautions in healthcare settings, were critical in controlling SARS and MERS. Institution of similar measures will be important and, it is hoped, successful in reducing the transmission of [SARS-CoV-2].”
An NIH news release announcing the SARS-CoV-2 stability study highlighted two additional observations:
- “If the viability of the two coronaviruses is similar, why is SARS-CoV-2 resulting in more cases? Emerging evidence suggest that people infected with SARS-CoV-2 might be spreading virus without recognizing, or prior to recognizing, symptoms. That would make disease control measures that were effective against SARS-CoV-1 less effective against its successor.
- In contrast to SARS-CoV-1, most secondary cases of virus transmission of SARS-CoV-2 appear to be occurring in community settings rather than healthcare settings. However, healthcare settings are also vulnerable to the introduction and spread of SARS-CoV-2, and the stability of SARS-CoV-2 in aerosols and on surfaces likely contributes to transmission of the virus in healthcare settings.”
Clearly, the scientific community has not agreed on aerosolization as a definite source of infection. Nevertheless, clinical laboratory workers in settings where potential exposure to SARS-CoV-2 exists should take precautions against airborne transmission until scientists can definitively determine whether this latest coronavirus can be acquired through the airborne transmission.
—Andrea Downing Peck
Related Information:
Aerosol and Surface Stability of SARS-CoV-2 as Compared with SARS-CoV-1
Another Decade, Another Coronavirus
Coronavirus Can Likely Remain Airborne for Some Time. That Doesn’t Mean We’re Doomed
Can this virus be picked up while walking alone outside?
From my observation, the Corvid-19 viruses are actually heat-seeking viruses and multiply easily and much faster in human bodies.
They seem to thrive for long hours in the air till a body of warmth is detected. While countries in the tropic have high humidity where air is denser and heavier,
countries that are currently experiencing colder spell where air is lighter, allow viruses to move faster seeking out a warmer body, particularly those under thicker clothings.
Countries nearer the equator where temperatures sometimes are higher than body temperature seem to have a lesser problem.
Bottom line ? As new data emerges every hour regarding a virus about which we know relatively little, it is paramount that we are over-cautious, whether clinicians, healthcare workers, or members of the general public…this to protect both the healthy and those recovering from the virus.
My opinion is that it is being transmitted by air, wind aloft, ect. Has anyone tested the air samples in these hotspots? Obviously it would require multiple samples from strategic areas within the hotspot. I feel it is transmitting too fast to be strictly person to person etc. Anyway , that is my thoughts on this virus….