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Citywide indoor #air #sampling mirrors #wastewater and clinical case #surveillance of respiratory viruses

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By G.M.

 


Abstract

Wastewater surveillance of respiratory pathogens can provide timely estimates of viral activity and disease trends in a population. Indoor air surveillance could be used similarly with some advantages but remains largely unvalidated at the community-scale. Here, an indoor air surveillance program was employed as part of public health environmental surveillance in Chicago, Illinois, USA. Ten air samplers were placed in healthcare and congregate living settings across the city. Weekly air samples were evaluated for influenza A, influenza B, respiratory syncytial virus, and SARS-CoV-2 over two respiratory virus seasons. Citywide, aggregated air sample positivity and viral load were closely correlated with local clinical case and wastewater surveillance data across all respiratory viruses. Virus trends in air data often preceded clinical and wastewater, although this varied across pathogens and respiratory virus seasons. Further, whole-genome sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 showed close correlation of variant proportions across all datasets. At the building-scale, air samples obtained from a single sampling device provided efficient respiratory virus surveillance, with well-correlated estimates of respiratory pathogens. These data demonstrate that air surveillance can provide accurate estimates of respiratory virus infections and variants at a building or community-scale, serving as an alternative or complementary tool for public health environmental surveillance.


Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.


Funding Statement

This project was supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a financial assistance award totaling $800,000 with 100% funded by CDC/HHS. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by CDC/HHS, or the U.S. Government. The project described was supported in part by cooperative agreement NU50CK000556 from CDC. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of CDC. This work was also supported through a Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases at Rush University Medical Center award (1 GE1HS45832-01-00).

Source: MedRxIV, https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.13.25337283v1

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