COVID-19 Infection Detected in Breath Tests

upstart writes:

COVID-19 infection detected in breath tests:

Traces of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that causes COVID-19 can be detected in microscopically small fluid droplets exhaled during a very short time span. This is the finding of a new study from the University of Gothenburg. The measurement was carried out primarily with an advanced research instrument developed by the publishing research team.

The findings have now been published in the journal Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses. The measurements were made with the research instrument Particles in Exhaled Air (PExA), developed at Occupational and Environmental Medicine at Sahlgrenska Academy, and with a smaller handheld instrument called the Breath Explor (BE).

Infection spread with exhaled air is well known, but now the researchers show that a few breaths are sufficient for detecting traces of viruses in microscopically small fluid droplets (i.e. particles) exhaled from small airways, at least early in the course of COVID-19.

"We show that aerosol particles with the ribonucleic acid (RNA) virus can be found early in the course of COVID-19. The particles we can detect are very small-less than five micrometers in diameter-and we have here managed to capture particles with RNA virus in just a few breaths," said Emilia Viklund, a doctoral student in occupational and environmental medicine and lead author of the study.

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