FACILITIES MANAGEMENT
Airborne pathogen surveillance: don’t leave workforce safety up in the air
Daniel Mullen, bio- aerosol product manager at Thermo Fisher Scientific discusses the benefits of modern airborne pathogen surveillance solutions to predict viral loads in commercial buildings
T
he COVID-19 pandemic has proved the efficacy of mass testing to track and combat the spread of respiratory viruses. PCR testing of symptomatic individuals, along with mandatory quarantine for those testing positive, certainly helped to slow the spread of infection, but did not provide the necessary prediction and prevention strategies to stop everyday life coming to a standstill. More recently, with restrictions lifting, pathogen surveillance systems are increasingly being used to predict SARS- CoV-2 outbreaks prior to the reporting of significant infection rates. Moreover, an increasing number of schools, businesses, senior living centers and hospitals are using strategically placed air sampling systems to monitor the viral load in their premises, providing management with the necessary data to predict the likely spread of infection, and take preventative action to protect the health of their staff, residents, visitors and pupils, ensuring business operations remain unaffected.
Open for business
With the COVID-19 pandemic seemingly on the back foot, and community resistance to the virus increasing due to widespread vaccination drives, businesses and schools have been able to reopen with a significant reduction in risk. However, the decline in extensive PCR and lateral flow testing has dramatically reduced the data available to predict potential outbreaks and this, combined with increased mixing in the general population, provides fertile ground for unchecked spread of infections. Fortunately, SARS-CoV-2 is now less likely to lead to serious illness in most people, but the disruption caused by a high number of staff and pupil absences can still lead to business, healthcare and educational activities to grinding to a halt. It is therefore crucial for private institutions to implement non-invasive pathogen surveillance systems to gain an insight into the amount of virus circulating within their premises, helping them to introduce appropriate mitigation measures – mask wearing, social distancing, etc. – in a timely manner, before the rapid spread of infection can occur.
Sewage monitoring, for example, has been successfully used for decades to identify everything from E. coli to opioid metabolites, but the tracking of viruses using this method is made more difficult by a range of wastewater
Strategic implementation of air sampling pathogen surveillance systems can provide an almost real- time assessment of the viral load present within certain areas, allowing for the timely introduction of reactive – and even proactive – mitigative measures to minimise further spread of the virus
contaminants that can inhibit the PCR process. An alternative strategy, which is proving to be effective for businesses, schools, senior living centers and hospitals desiring an early warning of a potential outbreak, is to use air sampling to detect SARS-CoV-2 from infected individuals in aerosolized droplets – which is also the virus’s predominant mode of transmission.
Clearing the air
Modern airborne pathogen surveillance solutions are remarkably portable, allowing them to be placed in specific locations of interest, usually areas with the highest footfall. They operate by directing air though an accelerating slit impactor and trapping the incoming particles on a collection substrate. The sample cartridge can then either be sent to a laboratory for analysis or be tested on site using a specialized rapid PCR test module. These devices are now widely available, making it quick and easy to perform on-site testing for SARS-CoV-2, and generate accurate results within 30 minutes. This eliminates the inevitable lag – often days – between collecting a sample and receiving the lab results, by which point the virus could have infected an entire workforce before mitigative procedures could be introduced. The benefits of this approach and strategic sampler placement
are numerous. For example, if an air sampler is installed in every individual school classroom, a positive test result can be pinpointed to a specific group of students who are particularly at risk, allowing measures to be implemented and reviewed on a daily basis. Early warning of a potential outbreak can also allow proactive – rather than reactive – steps to be taken, providing sufficient time to place additional personnell on standby to compensate for any shortfall due to staff illness.
The availability of such rapid and accurate
results can also help determine whether the implementation of mitigation measures is impacting the amount of virus circulating in the air. The Institute for Health and the Built Environment at the University of Oregon recently conducted a study to determine the efficacy of increased ventilation, and by sampling the atmosphere in a room of patients infected with SARS-CoV-2, it was found that higher levels of aeration significantly reduced aerosol viral loads.
Reassigning responsibility
With the pandemic now appearing to ebb, and public risk continuing to decrease, government health organizations are increasingly taking a back seat in the management of SARS-CoV-2. As such, private institutions must be ready to take the necessary steps to protect their staff, residents, pupils and operations. With personal PCR and lateral flow testing on the decline, and COVID-positive individuals no longer facing mandatory quarantine in many localities, it will become much more difficult to assess the likelihood of an outbreak within a certain population. Consequently, it is imperative for businesses, senior living centers, schools and hospitals to make informed safety decisions based on data gathered from non-invasive sampling systems located on site. Strategic implementation of air sampling pathogen surveillance systems can provide an almost real-time assessment of the viral load present within certain areas, allowing for the timely introduction of reactive – and even proactive – mitigative measures to minimise further spread of the virus. This will likely not be the last pandemic we will live through – with novel pathogens being identified on a regular basis – but technologies like air samplers installed in public and private spaces will certainly provide a well needed advantage when the next global threat emerges.
8 BUILDING SERVICES & ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEER JANUARY 2023
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