冠状病毒和流感病毒对气溶胶的酸度敏感。 通过在室内空气中添加无害水平的硝酸，可以实现 pH 介导的冠状病毒快速灭活。 相反，室内空气过滤器可能会无意中去除挥发性酸，从而延长空气传播病毒的持续时间。 这种新的认识对于控制空气传播非常有帮助，尤其是在医院环境等室内环境中。
呼吸道感染引起的 影响 和 冠状病毒 是人类健康的重大持续性问题。全球每年仅流感一项就导致超过 400,000 万人死亡。持续的 COVID-19 大流行归因于 新型冠状病毒 SARS CoV-2 has caused over 6 million deaths so far plus immense human suffering and unthinkable economic damages to world economy. Therefore, minimising transmission of these 病毒 is an extremely important priority.
It is known that their dominant mode of transmission is airborne. These infections are contracted by breathing in contaminated air. The expiratory aerosol particles act as vehicles for the transmission of influenza 病毒 and novel 冠状病毒 SARS-CoV-2. Hence the importance of wearing face coverings. It is hypothesized that the 病毒 can remain in the air for about 3 hours with a half-life of 1.1 hours.
Needless to say, that rapid inactivation of these 病毒 would greatly contribute to limiting their transmission.
It is known that the enveloped 病毒 like influenza and corona 病毒 are inactivated in acidic conditions however level of acidity of expiratory aerosol particles and its role on inactivation of the 病毒 was unknown.
In a recent study published in the preprint medRxiv, the researchers examined this aspect for influenza and coronaviruses. They found that the aerosol particles exhaled into indoor air become mildly acidic (pH ≈ 4). This acidic condition rapidly inactivated influenza-A virus within minutes but the novel 冠状病毒 SARS-CoV-2 required days for inactivation. Further, if the indoor air were enriched with non-hazardous levels of nitric acid, the acidity of the aerosol dropped by up to 2 units which in turn reduced the inactivation times for both viruses to below 30 seconds. This pH-mediated 99%- reduction in inactivation time could be of great significance in rapid inactivation of these viruses in indoor settings thus helping reduce community spread considerably.
鉴于上述发现，应仔细考虑使用室内空气过滤器，因为从室内空气中无意去除挥发性酸可能会降低呼出气溶胶的酸度并延长空气传播时间 病毒 坚持。
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参考文献：
- COVID-19：确认 SARS-CoV-2 病毒通过空气传播意味着什么？ 科学欧洲。 17 年 2021 月 XNUMX 日发布。可在 http://scientificeuropean.co.uk/covid-19/covid-19-what-does-confirmation-of-the-airborne-transmission-of-sars-cov-2-virus-mean/
- 罗B., 等 2022.呼气气溶胶的酸度控制空气传播的流感病毒和 SARS-CoV-2 的传染性。 预印本 medRxiv。 发表于 14 年 2022 月 XNUMX 日。 DOI： https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.03.14.22272134
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