Obesity, age, and the state of COVID-19 infection affect the number of virus strains that an infected person inhales, according to a new study that says these factors determine its one is going to be a top spreader of the virus.
The observational study, published in the journal PNAS, evaluated 194 healthy individuals and also examined the results of an experimental study of nonhuman primates with COVID-19.
According to the researchers, including those from Harvard University in the U.S., exhaled aerosol particles vary greatly between subjects, depending on age, state of viral infection, and body mass index (BMI). .
Body mass index is the ratio of a person’s weight to the square of their height in meters, and the scientists said that older people with a higher BMI and a growing rate of COVID-19 infection three times the number of exhaled respiratory droplets than the others in the study groups.
The analysis showed that 18 percent of the human subjects made up 80 percent of the exhaled grains in the group – showing a circulation of exhaled aerosol grains that follows the 20/80 rule.
According to this rule, which is seen in other infectious diseases, 20 percent of people with disease are responsible for 80 percent of relapses.
The experts also found that aerosol droplets in nonhuman primates increased as COVID-19 infection progressed, reaching peak levels one week after infection before falling to normal after two weeks.
As infection with COVID-19 progressed, they reported that the viral particles became smaller, reaching the size of one micron at the height of the infection.
These tiny particles, the researchers said, are more likely to be destroyed when people breathe, talk or cough and can stay away much longer, travel longer in the air and enter deeper into the lungs when inhaled.
They reported that the increase in exhaled aerosolas occurred even among those with asymptomatic cases of COVID-19.
“We have seen a similar increase in droplets at the level of infectious disease with other infectious diseases such as tuberculosis,” said Chad Roy, co-author of the study from the Tulane National Priority Research Center in the US.
“It appears that viral and bacterial infections of the airway can weaken airway mucus, which encourages the movement of infectious particles into this environment,” said Roy.
While the findings suggested that young and healthy people tend to generate far fewer drops than the older and less healthy ones, the researchers warned that anyone, when he is infected with the coronary virus, being in danger of producing a large number of respiratory droplets.
They said further studies are needed to find out other factors that may affect the amount of virus that an infected person can spread.
“Understanding the source and differentiation of respiratory droplet generation, and controlling it through stabilizing the mucus surface of the airway lining, could lead to effective approaches to COVID-19 infection and transmission. reduction, “the scientists in the study wrote.
(Only the headline and image of this report may have been reworked by Industry Status staff; the rest of the content is automatically generated from syndicated feeds.)
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