I took a break from blogging to help start up the mass asymptomatic testing program for SARS-CoV-2 at UC Davis but now I’m working through the backlog of relevant papers to post about. I’ve posted a lot so far about restaurants, hospitals, and wastewater sampling…. but to my knowledge this is the first published description …
New paper of interest: The Airplane Cabin Microbiome | SpringerLink Abstract: Serving over three billion passengers annually, air travel serves as a conduit for infectious disease spread, including emerging infections and pandemics. Over two dozen cases of in-flight transmissions have been documented. To understand these risks, a characterization of the airplane cabin microbiome is necessary. …
Microbes indoors DNA metabarcoding to assess indoor fungal communities: Electrostatic dust collectors and Illumina sequencing – Steffi Rocchi – Journal of Microbiological Methods ($39.95) Our study aimed to evaluate metabarcoding and bioinformatic analysis resulting from calibrated samples and samples collected by an electrostatic dust collector (EDC) in dwellings with no moisture problems. Thus, the fungal communities of …
I just saw this paper, published a couple of days ago in Nature’s Scientific Reports. And yeah, it’s open access! While reading this post, I would suggest playing Dalai Lama by Rammstein, the in-flight version of Der Erlkönig. Meta-genomic analysis of toilet waste from long distance flights; a step towards global surveillance of infectious diseases and antimicrobial …
Happy 4th of July! Given how many people in the US are travelling this long weekend, this article about air quality on airplanes caught my eye. And, while you are reading this post, may I suggest the following song: B.o.B – Airplanes ft. Hayley Williams of Paramore ? In this short article called Air Quality on …
Well, just got notified via automated Google Scholar searches of a new book in the NCBI Book collection. This one seems of relevance both to studies of microbiology of the built environment and to some recent news stories: The Airliner Cabin Environment and the Health of Passengers and Crew. It is a report from the National Research Council …
Scared of flying? Here’s one more reason you can add to your list. There is concern about the microbiology is airplane cabins, as it is a closed environment utilizing recycled air. The occupant density is much greater than normal “built” environments, and passengers cannot leave when they want to. But not much is known about …
On Fresh Air w/ Terry Gross yesterday there was a discussion of a book about air travel: Flying High And Low In ‘Full Upright And Locked Position’ | KQED Public Media for Northern CA. And one of the topics that came up was the germ / microbe content of different parts of a plane. Not sure …
Very very interesting article in the Globe and Mail by Alex Hutchinson: Destination — not the flight — more likely to make you sick, study says – The Globe and Mail. The article discusses the issue of people (well, mostly athletes) getting sick when they travel. What is fascinating is that a few lines of evidence indicate …
Short post here about an upcoming study by researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University (in collaboration with Delta Airlines). They are going to examine microbes in the air on commercial aviation flights, as well as sample a number of surfaces on the plane. They’re going to correlate this microbial diversity data …