10th International Aerosol Conference September 2 - September 7, 2018 America's Center Convention Complex St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Abstract View
Overview of Tuberculosis Transmission by Aerosol
CHAD J. ROY, Tulane University
Abstract Number: 1494 Working Group: Infectious Bioaerosol
Abstract There are few other pathogens that has made a deeper, lasting impression on our species than Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), with evidence of the first human infections taking place over 20,000 years ago. Tuberculosis is important in the human interface as the disease classified as one of the worlds’ only requisite obligate respiratory pathogens; that is transmission of most all tuberculosis disease is initiated though proximity contact with an infected host and the airborne transfer of infectious bacilli to a susceptible host. Despite the longevity of tuberculosis as a disease of the human condition, we collectively only recognize few clear indicators of the requirements associated with natural aerosol infection with Mtb and whether the evolution of the bacilli as recalcitrant to the environment is primary or corollary to resulting infection rates among susceptible populations. Scant data is available on aerosol-centric details of transmission of tuberculosis, including the magnitude of infectious particles generated and number of which is contained in normal exhalation, cough/sneeze or other violent expulsion from the host, and if particle size distribution that is exhaled is within a size consistent with respirability or inhalability and presence of viable bacilli. Similarly, little is known of the potential of bacilli-laden particles within these distributions to overcome physiochemical stressors such as dehydration and ultraviolet natural degradation during environmental transport between the infected and naïve host. Once inhaled, the dose requirement for induction of disease in a susceptible host is simply unknown – yet it is widely accepted that Mtb infection is not considered a purely stochastic event and rather requires some multiplicity for successful infection to take place. It is clear that a deep understanding of the aerosol transmission of tuberculosis and characterization of the major variables that influence infection remain an open question despite the contributions of historically relevant research that explored the ‘droplet nuclei theory of airborne contagion’. A number of notable current studies as well share the goal of bringing evidentiary detail to the phenomena of airborne transmission of tuberculosis. The collective of past and current research upon the modern theory of Mtb transmission all within the context of bioaerosol dynamics will be discussed in this presentation.