Stability of volatile organic compounds in sorbent tubes following SARS-CoV-2 inactivation procedures

COVID-19 is a highly transmissible respiratory illness that has rapidly spread all over the world causing more than 115 million cases and 2.5 million deaths. Most epidemiological projections estimate that the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus causing the infection will circulate in the next few years and raise enormous economic and social issues. COVID-19 has a dramatic impact on health care systems and patient management, and is delaying or stopping breath research activities due to the risk of infection to the operators following contact with patients, potentially infected samples or contaminated equipment. In this scenario, we investigated whether virus inactivation procedures, based on a thermal treatment (60 °C for 1 h) or storage of tubes at room temperature for 72 h, could be used to allow the routine breath analysis workflow to carry on with an optimal level of safety during the pandemic. Tests were carried out using dry and humid gaseous ...
Source: Journal of Breath Research - Category: Respiratory Medicine Authors: Source Type: research