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Concordance of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in Aerosols From a Nurses Station and in Nurses and Patients During a Hospital Ward Outbreak.

Stern RA, Charness ME, Gupta K, Koutrakis P, Linsenmeyer K, Madjarov R, Martins MAG, Lemos B, Dowd SE, Garshick E. Concordance of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in Aerosols From a Nurses Station and in Nurses and Patients During a Hospital Ward Outbreak. JAMA Network Open. 2022 Jun 1; 5(6):e2216176.

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Abstract:

IMPORTANCE: Aerosol-borne SARS-CoV-2 has not been linked specifically to nosocomial outbreaks. OBJECTIVE: To explore the genomic concordance of SARS-CoV-2 from aerosol particles of various sizes and infected nurses and patients during a nosocomial outbreak of COVID-19. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This cohort study included patients and nursing staff in a US Department of Veterans Affairs inpatient hospital unit and long-term-care facility during a COVID-19 outbreak between December 27, 2020, and January 8, 2021. Outbreak contact tracing was conducted using exposure histories and screening with reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) for SARS-CoV-2. Size-selective particle samplers were deployed in diverse clinical areas of a multicampus health care system from November 2020 to March 2021. Viral genomic sequences from infected nurses and patients were sequenced and compared with ward nurses station aerosol samples. EXPOSURE: SARS-CoV-2. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: The primary outcome was positive RT-PCR results and genomic similarity between SARS-CoV-2 RNA in aerosols and human samples. Air samplers were used to detect SARS-CoV-2 RNA in aerosols on hospital units where health care personnel were or were not under routine surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 infection. RESULTS: A total of 510 size-fractionated air particle samples were collected. Samples representing 3 size fractions ( > 10 µm, 2.5-10 µm, and < 2.5 µm) obtained at the nurses station were positive for SARS-CoV-2 during the outbreak (3 of 30 samples [10%]) and negative during 9 other collection periods. SARS-CoV-2 partial genome sequences for the smallest particle fraction were 100% identical with all 3 human samples; the remaining size fractions shared > 99.9% sequence identity with the human samples. Fragments of SARS-CoV-2 RNA were detected by RT-PCR in 24 of 300 samples (8.0%) in units where health care personnel were not under surveillance and 7 of 210 samples (3.3%; P? = .03) where they were under surveillance. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: In this cohort study, the finding of genetically identical SARS-CoV-2 RNA fragments in aerosols obtained from a nurses station and in human samples during a nosocomial outbreak suggests that aerosols may have contributed to hospital transmission. Surveillance, along with ventilation, masking, and distancing, may reduce the introduction of community-acquired SARS-CoV-2 into aerosols on hospital wards, thereby reducing the risk of hospital transmission.





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