Clean 2008, 36 (10 – 11), 845 – 849 I. E. Agranovski et al. 845 Igor E. Agranovski 1 Alex.S. Safatov 2 Alex P. Agafonov 2 Oleg V. Pyankov 1 Alex N. Sergeev 2 1 Griffith School of Engineering, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia. 2 State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology “Vector”, Koltsovo, Novosibirsk region, Russia. Research Article Monitoring of Airborne Mumps and Measles Viruses in a Hospital A new personal bioaerosol sampler, which was found suitable for continuous long- term (up to 8 h) monitoring of airborne bacteria, fungi, and viruses, was recently developed. A range of investigations under controlled laboratory conditions verified the performance of the device for both stress sensitive and robust viral particles. To decrease the detection time, the next step of the technique development was related to utilization of the sampler in combination with polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology in the laboratory. The combined device was found to be fully feasible with the corresponding decrease of the detection time from a few days to 2.5 h. In addi- tion, the results for targeted microorganisms were not affected by background biolog- ical particles and cross-reaction was not observed. The current study is the first trial to use the new combined device, i. e., sampler-conventional PCR device, for monitor- ing airborne viruses in the field. The monitoring procedures were performed in hospi- tal infection wards with patients suffering from mumps and measles diseases to detect the corresponding disease causing viruses in the ambient air. The results for the existence of the airborne viruses were obtained for both strains. A simple proce- dure is also suggested for enumeration of microbial contamination in the ambient air. Keywords: Bioaerosols; Airborne virus; Personal sampling; Bubbling; Measles; Mumps; PCR; Received: August 11, 2008; accepted: September 22, 2008 DOI: 10.1002/clen.200800143 1 Introduction The growing concern for human exposure to bioaerosols has cre- ated demand for the development of reliable and accurate monitor- ing techniques and has led to the initiation of a number of studies focused on the detection and enumeration of viable/nonviable bio- aerosols in critical locations possibly contaminated by airborne pathogenic particles. Such studies have been undertaken at waste management facilities [1, 2], animal houses [3], hospitals [4, 5], clean office environments [6], and other public, industrial and agricul- tural facilities. However, the main focus of all the listed projects has been the identification and characterization of bacterial and fungal airborne contaminants and no viral aerosols have been taken into consideration. A novel bioaerosol sampling technique, which utilizes the bub- bling process in the collection fluid, has recently been developed and found feasible for the long-term personal sampling of airborne bacteria and fungal spores, since it maintained a high physical col- lection efficiency and high microbial recovery rate for robust and stress-sensitive bioaerosols [7]. Further tests have shown that the new technique also has significant potential for application in the collection of viable airborne viruses, particularly when utilized for the sampling of robust strains [8]. Various laboratory studies have been undertaken to identify the recovery rates of a number of viruses during short- and long-term sampling, detection limits of analytical techniques and other applications [9 – 11]. However, con- sidering the rapid spread of some respiratory diseases caused by air- borne viral particles, the standard laboratory procedures utilized for analysis of the collection liquid after air sampling are far too slow for timely detection of biological threats, e. g., bacteria should be incubated for 2-5 days and some fungi and viruses require even longer incubation periods. Clearly, there is a need for the develop- ment of rapid, and at least, qualitative analytical procedures in order to meet the expectations of potential users from anti-terrorist units, defence forces, public health and agriculture specialists. Thus, a further study by the current authors [12] was designed to explore the possibility of utilizing the conventional PCR method to rapidly obtain qualitative results on the presence of particular microorganisms in the air under controlled laboratory conditions. The advantage of such an arrangement is that if the presence of a particular pathogen in the air is detected by the PCR, the remaining collection liquid could then be analyzed further to quantify the number of live viral particles by common more time-consuming microbiological assays. The experiments were performed with a robust Vaccinia virus under controlled laboratory conditions. The results of the study demonstrated full capability of the combined (sampler-PCR) technique for detection of targeted airborne viral par- ticles, even at very low concentrations. The most recent study by the current authors [13] focused on the employment of a real-time PCR in combination with a personal sampler for further shortening of the time required for identification of pathogens in ambient air. Correspondence: Prof. I. E. Agranovski, Griffith School of Engineering, Griffith University, Brisbane, 4111, Queensland, Australia. E-Mail: i.agranovski@griffith.edu.au i 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. 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