Scientists Find Out What Makes Some People COVID-19 Super Spreaders

Boston: Obesity, age and status of COVID-19 infection influence the number of viral particles an infected person exhales, new study shows that these factors determine whether a person becomes a super-spreader virus.
The observational study, published in the journal PNAS, assessed 194 healthy people and also looked at the results of an experimental study in non-human primates with COVID-19.
According to researchers, including those at Harvard University in the United States, exhaled aerosol particles vary widely from subject to subject, depending on their age, stage of viral infection and body mass index (BMI).
Body mass index is the ratio of a person’s weight to the square of their height in meters, and scientists have said that older people with higher BMIs and increasing degree of COVID-19 infection had three times more respiratory droplets exhaled than others in the study groups.
Analysis found that 18% of human subjects accounted for 80% of the exhaled particles in the group – reflecting a distribution of exhaled aerosol particles that follows the 20/80 rule.
According to this rule, which is observed in other epidemics of infectious diseases, 20% of infected people are responsible for 80% of transmissions.
Scientists also found that aerosol droplets in non-human primates increased as the COVID-19 infection progressed, peaking at one week after infection before returning to normal after two weeks.
As the COVID-19 infection progressed, they said the virus particles became smaller, reaching the size of a micron at the peak of the infection.
According to the researchers, these tiny particles are more likely to be expelled when people breathe, speak or cough, and can also stay afloat much longer, travel farther in the air, and penetrate deeper into the lungs when they are. inhaled.
They said the increase in exhaled aerosols had occurred even in people with asymptomatic cases of COVID-19.
“We saw a similar increase in droplets during the acute infection phase with other infectious diseases like tuberculosis,” said Chad Roy, study co-author from the Tulane National Primate Research Center in the United States.
“It seems likely that viral and bacterial respiratory tract infections can weaken the mucus in the respiratory tract, which promotes the movement of infectious particles in this environment,” Roy said.
While the results suggest that young, healthy people tend to generate significantly fewer droplets than older, less healthy ones, the researchers warned that any individual, when infected with the coronavirus, can run. the risk of producing a large number of respiratory droplets.
They said more studies are needed to determine other factors that may influence the number of viral particles an infected person can spread.
“Understanding the source and variance of respiratory droplet generation, and controlling it through the stabilization of the mucosal surfaces of the airways, may lead to effective approaches to reduce infection and transmission of COVID-19,” wrote the scientists in the study.