The importance of the aerosol mode for transmission of influenza is unknown. Understanding the role of aerosols is essential to developing public health interventions such as the use of surgical masks as a source control to prevent the release of infectious aerosols. Little information is available on the number and size of particles generated by infected persons, which is partly due to the limitations of conventional air samplers, which do not efficiently capture fine particles or maintain microorganism viability. We designed and built a new sampler, called the G-II, that collects exhaled-breath particles that can be used in infectivity analyses. The G-II allows test subjects to perform various respiratory maneuvers (i.e., tidal breathing, coughing, and talking) and allows subjects to wear a mask or respirator during testing. A conventional slit impactor collects particles greater than 5.0 μm. Condensation of water vapor is used to grow remaining particles, including fine particles, to a size large enough to be efficiently collected by a 1.0 μm slit impactor and be deposited into a buffer-containing collector. We evaluated the G-II for fine particle collection efficiency with inert particle aerosols and evaluated infective virus collection using influenza A virus aerosols. Testing results showed greater than 85% collection efficiency for particles greater than 50 nm and influenza virus collection comparable with a reference SKC BioSampler®. The new design will enable determination of exhaled infectious virus generation rate and evaluate control strategies such as wearing a surgical-type mask to prevent the release of viruses from infected persons. Copyright 2013 American Association for Aerosol Research

中文翻译：

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流感病毒呼气生物气溶胶收集器的研制及性能评价

气溶胶传播方式对流感传播的重要性尚不清楚。了解气溶胶的作用对于制定公共卫生干预措施至关重要，例如使用外科口罩作为源头控制以防止传染性气溶胶的释放。关于感染者产生的颗粒的数量和大小的信息很少，这部分是由于传统空气采样器的局限性，不能有效地捕获细颗粒或保持微生物的活力。我们设计并建造了一个名为 G-II 的新采样器，用于收集可用于传染性分析的呼出气颗粒。G-II 允许测试对象执行各种呼吸动作（即潮式呼吸、咳嗽和说话），并允许对象在测试期间戴上口罩或呼吸器。传统的狭缝撞击器收集大于 5.0 μm 的颗粒。水蒸气的冷凝用于使剩余颗粒（包括细颗粒）生长到足够大的尺寸，以便由 1.0 μm 狭缝撞击器有效收集并沉积到含有缓冲液的收集器中。我们用惰性颗粒气溶胶评估了 G-II 的细颗粒收集效率，并使用甲型流感病毒气溶胶评估了感染性病毒的收集。测试结果表明，对于大于 50 nm 的颗粒和流感病毒的收集效率高于 85%，与参考 SKC BioSampler® 相当。新设计将能够确定呼出的传染性病毒产生率并评估控制策略，例如佩戴外科口罩以防止感染者释放病毒。