Survival of Lassa Virus in Blood and Tissue Culture Media and in a Small Particle Aerosol

Abstract

Knowledge of the survival and stability of a pathogen is important for understanding its risk, reducing its transmission, and establishing control measures. Lassa virus is endemic in West Africa, causes severe disease, and is an emerging pathogen of concern. Our study examined the survival of Lassa virus in blood and tissue culture media at two different temperatures. The stability of Lassa virus held within a small particle aerosol was also measured. In liquids, Lassa virus was found to decay more quickly at 30 °C compared to room temperature. Sealed samples protected from environmental desiccation were more stable than samples open to the environment. In a small particle aerosol, the decay rate of Lassa virus was determined at 2.69% per minute. This information can contribute to risk assessments and inform mitigation strategies in the event of an outbreak of Lassa virus.

Comparison of Aerosol Stability of Different Variants of Ebola Virus and Marburg Virus and Virulence of Aerosolised Ebola Virus in an Immune-Deficient Mouse

“…In terms of consistency, the filovirus decay data reported in this study provide similar decay rates and half-life values to that which we have observed with the Lassa virus [18] and Nipah virus [in preparation]. The same apparatus (same aerosol generation, aerosol conditioning, and particle size), spray conditions, temperature, and relative humidity as well as the same virus enumeration methods were used for all these studies, and all viruses were grown in the same cell line and aerosolized in the same media.…”

“…Studies to determine aerosol stability were performed in the rotating 40 L Goldberg drum as described recently [17,18] within Advisory Committee on Dangerous Pathogens (ACDP) Containment Level 4 (BSL4 containment). Briefly, the AeroMP (BiAera Technologies, LLC) and a 3 jet Collison nebulizer (known to produce particles in the range of 1-5 µm) [19] were used to generate and condition an aerosol at 30 L/min and 50% relative humidity.…”

Monoclonal antibody therapy protects nonhuman primates against mucosal exposure to Lassa virus

“…12 Previous studies have shown that LASV is stable as an aerosol, and the biological half-life ranges from approximately 10 to 55 min depending on the temperature and humidity, 13 while the decay rate of LASV in a small-particle aerosol was determined to be 2.69% per minute. 14 …”