कोरोनाव्हायरसचे एअरबोर्न ट्रान्समिशन: एरोसोलची आम्लता संसर्गजन्यता नियंत्रित करते 

कोरोनाव्हायरस आणि इन्फ्लूएंझा विषाणू एरोसोलच्या आंबटपणासाठी संवेदनशील असतात. नाइट्रिक ऍसिडच्या गैर-घातक पातळीसह घरातील हवा समृद्ध करून कोरोनाव्हायरसचे pH-मध्यस्थ जलद निष्क्रियता शक्य आहे. याउलट, इनडोअर एअर फिल्टर अनावधानाने वाष्पशील ऍसिड काढून टाकू शकते त्यामुळे हवेतील विषाणूचा टिकाव लांबणीवर टाकू शकतो. विशेषत: रुग्णालयाच्या सेटिंग्जसारख्या घरातील वातावरणात हवेतून होणारे संक्रमण नियंत्रित करण्यासाठी ही नवीन समज खूप उपयुक्त ठरू शकते.  

Respiratory infections caused by शीतज्वर आणि corona viruses are significant persistent problems for human health. Influenza alone is responsible over 400,000 deaths per year worldwide. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic attributed to कादंबरी कोरोनाव्हायरस SARS CoV-2 has caused over 6 million deaths so far plus immense human suffering and unthinkable economic damages to world economy. Therefore, minimising transmission of these व्हायरस is an extremely important priority.  

It is known that their dominant mode of transmission is airborne. These infections are contracted by breathing in contaminated air. The expiratory aerosol particles act as vehicles for the transmission of influenza व्हायरस and novel कोरोनाव्हायरस SARS-CoV-2. Hence the importance of wearing face coverings. It is hypothesized that the व्हायरस can remain in the air for about 3 hours with a half-life of 1.1 hours.  

Needless to say, that rapid inactivation of these व्हायरस would greatly contribute to limiting their transmission.  

It is known that the enveloped व्हायरस like influenza and corona व्हायरस are inactivated in acidic conditions however level of acidity of expiratory aerosol particles and its role on inactivation of the व्हायरस was unknown.  

In a recent study published in the preprint medRxiv, the researchers examined this aspect for influenza and coronaviruses. They found that the aerosol particles exhaled into indoor air become mildly acidic (pH ≈ 4). This acidic condition rapidly inactivated influenza-A virus within minutes but the novel कोरोनाव्हायरस SARS-CoV-2 required days for inactivation. Further, if the indoor air were enriched with non-hazardous levels of nitric acid, the acidity of the aerosol dropped by up to 2 units which in turn reduced the inactivation times for both viruses to below 30 seconds. This pH-mediated 99%- reduction in inactivation time could be of great significance in rapid inactivation of these viruses in indoor settings thus helping reduce community spread considerably.  

In light the above finding, use of indoor air filters should be carefully considered because any unintentional removal of volatile acids from the indoor air may reduce acidity of expiratory aerosol and prolong airborne व्हायरस चिकाटी 

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संदर्भ:  

1. कोविड-१९: SARS-CoV-19 व्हायरसच्या हवेतून प्रसारित झाल्याची पुष्टी म्हणजे काय? वैज्ञानिक युरोपियन. 2 एप्रिल 17 रोजी पोस्ट केले. येथे उपलब्ध http://scientificeuropean.co.uk/covid-19/covid-19-what-does-confirmation-of-the-airborne-transmission-of-sars-cov-2-virus-mean/  

2. लुओ बी., इत्यादी 2022. एक्स्पायरेटरी एरोसोलची आम्लता वायुजन्य इन्फ्लूएंझा व्हायरस आणि SARS-CoV-2 च्या संसर्गावर नियंत्रण ठेवते. प्री-प्रिंट medRxiv. 14 मार्च 2022 रोजी पोस्ट केले. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.03.14.22272134  

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