Single Sneeze Contaminates Whole Room, Says Study

A new report published in the Journal of Royal Society Interface reveals that a single sneeze can continue to contaminate the room for more than an hour. Researchers from Virginia Tech in United States analyzed air samples from three airplanes, a waiting room at a healthcare clinic and from three different rooms in a nursery. According to the report, half of the samples contained small droplets which were contaminated with flu virus.

An average cubic meter of the sample had more than 16,000 particles of flu virus which were still active hours after the sneeze.

“Given these concentrations, the amount of viruses a person would inhale over one hour would be ­adequate to induce infection. The virus-laden aerosols are small enough that the smallest ones can remain suspended for days”, lead researcher Linsey Marr said.




Source-Medindia