Survival of the Enveloped Virus Phi6 in Droplets as a Function of Relative Humidity, Absolute Humidity, and Temperature.

Survival of the Enveloped Virus Phi6 in Droplets as a Function of Relative Humidity, Absolute Humidity, and Temperature. Appl Environ Microbiol. 2018 Apr 06;: Authors: Prussin AJ, Schwake DO, Lin K, Gallagher DL, Buttling L, Marr LC Abstract Infectious diseases caused by enveloped viruses, such as influenza, SARS, and MERS, cause thousands of deaths and billions of dollars of economic losses per year. Studies have found a relationship among temperature, humidity, and influenza virus incidence, transmission, or survival; however, there are contradictory claims about whether absolute humidity (AH) or relative humidity (RH) is most important in mediating virus infectivity. Using the enveloped bacteriophage Phi6, which has been suggested as a surrogate for influenza virus and coronaviruses, we designed a study to discern whether AH, RH, or T is a better predictor of virus survival in droplets. Our results show that Phi6 survived best at high (>85%) and low (<60%) RHs, with a significant decrease in infectivity at mid-range RH (∼60-85%). At AH less than 22 g m-3, loss in infectivity was less than 2 orders of magnitude; however, when AH was greater than 22 g m-3, loss in infectivity was typically greater than 6 orders of magnitude. At a fixed RH of 75%, infectivity was very sensitive to temperature, decreasing two orders of magnitude between 19 °C and 25 °C. We used random forest modeling to identify the best environmental predic...
Source: Applied and Environmental Microbiology - Category: Microbiology Authors: Tags: Appl Environ Microbiol Source Type: research