Understanding air and water borne transmission and survival of coronavirus: Insights and way forward for SARS-CoV-2.
Sci Total Environ
; 749: 141486, 2020 Dec 20.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-693560
ABSTRACT
The ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has resulted in unprecedented disease burden, healthcare costs, and economic impacts worldwide. Despite several measures, SARS-CoV-2 has been extremely impactful due to its extraordinary infection potential mainly through coronavirus-borne saliva respiratory and droplet nuclei of an infected person and its considerable stability on surfaces. Although the disease has affected over 180 countries, its extent and control are significantly different across the globe, making it a strong case for exploration of its behavior and dependence across various environmental pathways and its interactions with the virus. This has spurred efforts to characterize the coronavirus and understand the factors impacting its transmission and survival such as aerosols, air quality, meteorology, chemical compositions and characteristics of particles and surfaces, which are directly or indirectly associated with coronaviruses infection spread. Nonetheless, many peer-reviewed articles have studied these aspects but mostly in isolation; a complete array of coronavirus survival and transmission from an infected individual through air- and water-borne channels and its subsequent intractions with environmental factors, surfaces, particulates and chemicals is not comprehensively explored. Particulate matter (PM) is omnipresent with variable concentrations, structures and composition, while most of the surfaces are also covered by PM of different characteristics. Learning from the earlier coronavirus studies, including SARS and MERS, an attempt has been made to understand the survival of SARS-CoV-2 outside of the host body and discuss the probable air and water-borne transmission routes and its interactions with the outside environment. The present work 1) Helps appreciate the role of PM, its chemical constituents and surface characteristics and 2) Further identifies gaps in this field and suggests possible domains to work upon for better understanding of transmission and survival of this novel coronavirus.
Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Coronavirus Infections
/
Coronavirus
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
Sci Total Environ
Year:
2020
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
J.scitotenv.2020.141486
Similar
MEDLINE
...
LILACS
LIS