Historical Discoveries on Viruses in the Environment and Their Impact on Public Health

Abstract

<b><i>Background:</i></b> Transmission of many viruses occurs by direct transmission during a close contact between two hosts, or by an indirect transmission through the environment. Several and often interconnected factors, both abiotic and biotic, determine the persistence of these viruses released in the environment, which can last from a few seconds to several years. Moreover, viruses in the environment are able to travel short to very long distances, especially in the air or in water. <b><i>Summary:</i></b> Although well described now, the role of these environments as intermediaries or as reservoirs in virus transmission has been extensively studied and debated in the last century. The majority of these discoveries, such as the pioneer work on bacteria transmission, the progressive discoveries of viruses, as well as the persistence of the influenza virus in the air varying along with droplet sizes, or the role of water in the transmission of poliovirus, have contributed to the improvement of public health. Recent outbreaks of human coronavirus, influenza virus, and Ebola virus have also demonstrated the contemporaneity of these research studies and the need to study virus persistence in the environment. <b><i>Key Messages:</i></b> In this review, we discuss historical discoveries that contributed to describe biotic and abiotic factors determining viral persistence in the environment.

SARS‐CoV ‐2 air sampling: A systematic review on the methodologies for detection and infectivity

“… 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 Although the presence of viruses in aerosols has been verified in all of these contexts, the actual risk of infection depends significantly on the stability of the viral particle in question. Viral factors such as whether it is an enveloped or non‐enveloped virus 19 play a major role in the environment's viral stability. Non‐enveloped viruses have been reported to be more stable in the environment because the capsid is more resistant to environmental factors than the envelope of enveloped viruses, 20 which is composed mainly by lipids that can be neutralized more easily by different chemical and physical agents present in the environment.…”

vAMPirus: A versatile amplicon processing and analysis program for studying viruses

“…From the human gut to sediments in the deep ocean, viruses are abundant, diverse, and shape the systems they inhabit (Breitbart et al, 2018;Correa et al, 2021;Suttle, 2007). The advent of high-throughput sequencing (HTS) techniques like amplicon sequencing has transformed the field of virology, illuminating the currently unculturable virosphere (Labadie et al, 2020;Metcalf et al, 1995;Paez-Espino et al, 2017;Zayed et al, 2022) and helping identify the impacts of viruses on ecosystem and host function (Braga et al, 2020;Breitbart et al, 2018;Thurber et al, 2017;Uyaguari-Diaz et al, 2016). Amplicon sequencing is a targeted, polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based HTS approach that allows deep characterization of genetic variants within virus populations (Short et al 2010).…”

Broad virus inactivation using inorganic micro/nano-particulate materials

“…Fomite-mediated virus transmission could be limited by the use of materials with virus disinfecting properties [ 5 ]. Viral disinfection has been a challenge since the discovery of viruses [ 6 ]. Virus characteristics may determine the need for cleaning viruses present in fomites [ 7 ], water or food in the case of viruses using the gastrointestinal entry route [ 8 ], or even airborne viruses [ 9 ].…”