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Passive Air Sampler Clip Determines Exposure to SARS-CoV-2

by Angela Mohan on Jan 13 2022 8:00 AM

Passive air sampler clip can help assess personal exposure to SARS-CoV-2, which could be helpful for workers in high-risk settings, like restaurants or health care facilities.

Passive Air Sampler Clip Determines Exposure to SARS-CoV-2
Novel passive air sampler clip can help assess personal exposure to SARS-CoV-2, which could be helpful for workers in high-risk settings, like restaurants or health care facilities, as per the report in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology Letters.
COVID-19 is transmitted through the inhalation of virus-laden aerosols, and respiratory droplets that infected individuals expel by coughing, sneezing, speaking, or breathing.

Researchers have used active air sampling devices to detect airborne SARS-CoV-2 in indoor settings; however, these monitors are typically large, expensive, non-portable, and require electricity.

Krystal Pollitt and colleagues wanted to develop a small, lightweight, inexpensive, and wearable device that doesn’t require a power source to better understand personal exposures to the virus.

The researchers developed a wearable passive air sampler, the Fresh Air Clip, that continually adsorbs virus-laden aerosols on a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) surface.

The team tested the air sampler in a rotating drum in which they generated aerosols containing a surrogate virus, a bacteriophage with similar properties to SARS-CoV-2.

They detected a virus on the PDMS sampler using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), showing that the device could be used to reliably estimate airborne virus concentrations.

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Then, the researchers distributed Fresh Air Clips to 62 volunteers who wore the monitors for five days. PCR analysis of the clips detected SARS-CoV-2 RNA in five of the clips: four were worn by restaurant servers and one by homeless shelter staff.

Scientists detected the highest viral loads in two badges from restaurant servers.

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Although the Fresh Air Clip has not yet been commercialized, these results indicate that it could serve as a semiquantitative screening tool for assessing personal exposure to SARS-CoV-2 and help identify high-risk areas for indoor exposure the researchers say.

Source-Medindia


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