[MP Raadsen]

in reply to: Questions about influeza #9375

Hi Sofja, Sep and Collin,
Question 1:
– Airplanes can spread influenza and other viruses, mainly because they can transport infected people over very long distances in a short amount of time. The massive increase of airtravel over the past 100 years have definitely increased the risk of larger outbreaks and pandemics. Infection during the flight, on an airplane itself is quite rare howeve. This is because the airflow is very strictly regulated on an aircraft and the air is blown downwards, causing any droplets coming from a person’s nose or mouse to quickly fall towards the ground, where it is difficult to reach another person’s mouth or nose and infect them. In addition, the air is passed through a HEPA filter, which very efficiently removes viruses and bacteria from the air.
Question 2
– If by ‘average’ you mean young and healthy and by flu you mean the seasonal flu that is circulating right now, then no. Complications in these types of people do occur occasionally, but it is very rare. There are much more dangerous strains of flu however, such as birdflu (H5N1) that has a very high mortality rate in humans. Luckily, H5N1 is not very good as spreading from person to person (yet) and therefore typically only people working with poultry can get sick when there is an outbreak among the birds.

Good luck with your project!

Cheers,

Matthijs.

[MP Raadsen]

in reply to: Vraag over Influenza virus #9271

Hoi Ishan, Bram, Yassine en Efecan,
Gaaf idee!
Desinfecterende doekjes kunnen in principe helpen om handen te desinfecteren en infecties te voorkomen.
Je moet ze alleen wel op de juiste manier kunnen gebruiken dus zorgvuldig en niet de doekjes vies maken door ermee te spelen.
Veel desinfecterende doekjes bevatten alcohol of andere desinfectie middelen, die schadelijk zijn als je ze binnenkrijgt.
Ik weet eigenlijk niet of er effectieve desinfectiemiddelen bestaan die veilig zijn als je ze inslikt. Daar zou ik proberen nog iets over op te zoeken.
Als je dit aan kinderen van onder de 4 gaat aanbieden moet het echt héél veilig zijn. Ga er vanuit dat het kind alles in zijn/haar mond stopt!
Het centrale concept in jullie plan is denk ik heel goed: spelenderwijs jonge kinderen hygiene bijbrengen.
Goede begeleiding van een volwassende is denk ik het allerbelangrijkste.
Zorg dus dat je het product vooral richt op ouders en begeleiders op kinderdagverblijven.
Neem hier ook in mee dat het belangrijk is in kinderdagverblijven dat speelgoed wordt schoongemaakt na gebruik.
Probeer ook iets in te lezen over hoe kinderen zich motorisch en cognitief ontwikkelen in de eerste levensjaren.
In Nederland kennen we het van Wiechenschema voor normale ontwikkeling van kleine kinderen. Zoek dat eens op en kijk hoe oud een kind minimaal moet zijn om zelf zo’n doekje te kunnen gebruiken.

Succes!

[MP Raadsen]

in reply to: Question about Airborne #9270

Hi Jaap and Ilse,
As you can imagine, there are many factors that influence this and it is highly complex topic. There is still a lot we don’t know about this.
You have mentioned a few factors already, so I will focus on those.

Weather: More respiratory viral infections occur during the winter months, compared to the summer. There are several factors which are at play here. Cold air has an effect on the lining of our respiratory tract and our immune system, which appears to make us more susceptible to infection. There is also less UV radiation, which damages the viral particles. In general, viral particles are more stable (less likely to be damaged) at low temperatures, just like your food stays fresher when you keep it in the fridge. Air humidity also plays a role. A very low humidity, respiratory droplets dry out very quickly. This results in smaller droplets with low effective salt concentration, that can remain airborne for longer. Very high humidity (such as seen in tropical climates) can also help a virus survive, because the respiratory droplets remain intact and conditions such as temperature and salt concentrations remain very similar to the human body. At intermediate humidity, viruses are at a disadvantage, because the water evaporates out of the droplets they sit in, leaving salt behind, which can damage the virus. In general, respiratory viruses have it better in cold climates, but as we have seen during the pandemic, they can also spread very effectively in tropical climates, such as Brazil at the moment. Lastly, as you are probably aware of yourself, human behavior changes with the weather, and this can also have a massive impact on viral transmission.

Distance is a much easier one: the greater the distance between persons, the lower the risk of transmission.

Obstacles: Similar to distance, obstacles in the form of facemasks can make it harder for a virus to spread.

Indoors/Outdoors: This is also influences by the weather of course! Apart from this, there are several factors to consider. In general, there is more space outdoors, so social distancing is easier. Air circulation is also better, which means that infectious droplets that become airborne are diluted more quickly. This has lead many people to believe that, as long as you are outside, you don’t have to mind the rules that much. This is not true however, because airflow (i.e. wind) can be very unpredictable. What if you are standing downwind from someone who is infected? Under the right circumstances, viruses can still spread very efficiently outdoors. The same principle applies indoors. Some people have suggested that we should focus on having better ventilation indoors. However, if an open window or a ventilator is blowing air from one side of the room to the other and there is an infected person sitting close to that door or ventilator, that can increase the risk of transmission. The safest way to ventilate a room is by blowing clean air straight down from the ceiling. This way, the infectious droplets are blown downwards, where they are less likely to reach somebody’s mouth or nose. This is how hospital rooms and laboratories are ventilated. Things like air conditioning that many buildings in warmer climates have, also change temperature and air humidity, which can increase the risk of indoor transmission there.

[MP Raadsen]

in reply to: Question about Airborne #9269

Hi jaap and Ilse,
Many of the most infectious viruses spread through the air. Typically, viruses cannot travel great distances through the air, but many of them can infect people at a distance of several meters from the source.
When people sneeze, cough, or even just while talking (try saying “STay HealTHy”), they create airflows from their mouth and nose. This warm air contains tiny droplets that consist of our respiratory secretions (mucus, slime). Airborne viruses use these droplets to spread from person to person. Once another host inhales the droplets created by an infected person, the virus attaches itself to the cells that line the interior walls of our respiratory tract and infect these cells. From there they can spread from cell to cell within the host.

[MP Raadsen]

in reply to: Question about Airborne #9268

Hi Jaap and Ilse,
I deal with this question for COVID-19 in this post. These principles apply to many airborne viruses.

[MP Raadsen]

in reply to: question about corona #9267

Hi,
That depends on the circumstances…
How many viruses does the infected person have in his/her airways?
How close are people standing together?
Are we inside or outside?
If we are outside, which way is the wind blowing?
What is the temperature?
Is anybody wearing a facemask?
Is the infected person sneezing/coughing?

So, like most things in life, there is no simple answer.

[MP Raadsen]

in reply to: question about corona #9266

Good question!

How does a facemask work?

Facemasks act as barriers between your airways and the environment and make it more difficult for viruses and bacteria to reach your airways.
Conversely, they also make it more difficult for them to leave your airways.
The fabric of a facemask acts as a filter, that removes larger liquid droplets from exhaled air and traps viruses that are present in those droplets.
However, viruses are extremely small (80-160 nanometers for coronaviruses), and the holes in the facemask filter are much bigger!
Still, facemasks can trap particles that are smaller than the gaps in the filter.
This is because they change the direction of airflow, so instead of infectious particles traveling in a straight line through the mask, they scatter in many different directions, causing many particles to ‘bump’ into the fabric of the mask. This principle applies especially to masks with multiple layers.
Finally, facemasks prevent you from touching your mouth and nose, and that can stop you accidentally infecting yourself that way.

How effective are facemasks?

How effective the facemask is depends on which type is being used.
Standard surgical masks stop approximately 80% of fine droplets.
FFP II (N95) and FFP III (N99) masks can stop 95 and 99% respectively.
These masks are typically only used in hospitals and laboratories, by personnel who have to come very close to sources of infection, under dangerous circumstances.

Wearing of facemasks by the public reduces the spread of the coronavirus, so the number of new cases per day. Studies have estimated that standard facemasks for the public are about 67% effective in protecting the wearer. This may not seem very high, but if everybody does it, we can slow the virus down together.

It is also important that masks are worn properly: so over the mouth AND the nose, make sure it fits tightly around your face, keep your mask in a clean place and make sure that the part of the mask you breath through doesn’t touch any potentially contaminated surfaces (including dirty hands).

[MP Raadsen]

in reply to: question about corona #9265

That is a very difficult question to answer.
We don’t really know.
The only way we could find out is by trying to infect a person in the lab and that is not allowed of course, because we would be making somebody sick on purpose.
If we ever find a very effective cure for COVID-19, so that we could absolutely guarantee the safety of the test subject, such an experiment could be done.
I suspect the number may also vary from person to person. For example, somebody with a very strong immune system may not get very sick from the same amount of particles that could make somebody else seriously ill.

[MP Raadsen]

in reply to: Britse variant coronavirus (Ir. Lelylyceum) #9264

Vraag1: We weten nog niet zeker waarom de Britse variant besmettelijker is. We denken dat dat te maken heeft met dat het virus zich door de mutatie sterker vast kan hechten aan de cellen die het infecteert. Dit zou kunnen betekenen dat een persoon minder virusdeeltjes binnen hoeft te krijgen om geïnfecteerd te raken. Er wordt ook gezegd dat deze variant misschien minder gevoelig zijn voor antistoffen die tegen de oude variant gevormd zijn, maar het meeste onderzoek tot dusver spreekt dat tegen. Andere varianten uit bijvoorbeeld Zuid Afrika en Brazilie lijken wél wat ongevoeliger te zijn voor antistoffen.

Vraag 2: SARS CoV 2 kan het beste de cellen die aan de binnenkant van onze luchtwegen zitten besmetten. De meeste virussen uit de corona familie hebben zich in deze route gespecialiseerd door jarenlange evolutie. In een wondje in de huid zijn de omstandigheden anders dan in onze luchtwegen. Er zitten bijvoorbeeld andere cellen in en onder onze huid en factoren als temperatuur en vochtigheid zijn anders. Er zijn geen aanwijzingen dat het virus de ogen zelf kan infecteren, maar als er virusdeeltjes in het traanvocht komt kan het wel in de neusholte terecht komen! Onze traanbuisjes voeren namelijk onze tranen af naar de neus/keel. Je kunt dus mogelijk wel corona krijgen door met besmette handen in je ogen te wrijven!

Vraag 3: Coronavirus kan enkele uren intact blijven op dode oppervlakten. Objecten die veel aangeraakt worden, zoals deurklinken, knoppen bij het stoplicht, lichtschakelaren, touchscreens, etc. kunnen dus een bron van infectie zijn. Besmetting via deze route is makkelijk te voorkomen door je handen te wassen met water en zeep of met handalcohol. Raak ook niet je gezicht aan als je net aan een deurklink hebt gezeten!

[MP Raadsen]

in reply to: question about corona #9263

Dear Ilse and Jaap
SARS Coronavirus 2 can spread via :
– Direct person to person contact (touching),
– Through indirect contact with inanimate surfaces that have virus on them (fomite transmission),
– By inhaling respiratory droplets that form when someone talks, sneezes, coughs, etc.
– By inhaling smaller virus-containing particles (aerosols), although we don’t know if this happens very often in every day life.
– Perhaps though other bodily secretions, such as faeces. But this is problably not a major route.

We think most infections occur between people who are in close range contact (<2m) for at least 15 minutes.

Does this answer your question?

Cheers,

Matthijs Raadsen.

[MP Raadsen]

in reply to: MERS Coronavirus #8680

Hi Stefania,
No, this is actually not true, there are still a few new cases of human MERS infection in the Middle East every month. However, the virus does not seem to spread very easily from one person to the other, and so these “mini” outbreaks never become epidemics. Countries where MERS still exists, such as Saudi Arabia, can now detect the virus more easily and isolate people who have been infected more quickly. This is probably the reason why we haven’t seen any large outbreaks for the last few years.
However, the virus still exists in both camels and humans and this could still be a big problem in the future if it adapts and becomes more infectious for human beings.

Hope this answers you question.

Cheers,

Matthijs

[MP Raadsen]

in reply to: Nieuw Coronavirus 2019 #8563

De WHO heeft deze week een officiele naam uitgebracht voor de ziekte veroorzaakt door het nieuwe Coronavirus: COVID-19.
Het virus heeft ook een officiele naam gekregen, van de International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses ICTV. Deze groep heeft het virus SARS CoV2 genoemd.
Als je het nieuwe Coronavirus als onderwerp hebt gekozen, denk dan na over waarom ziekten en virussen andere namen krijgen en hoe die namen gekozen worden. Hoe belangrijk is de naam eigenlijk.

Ben je goed in Engels, lees dan dit artikel om meer te weten te komen.

[Author]

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