Vomit can release virus into the air

It’s arguably not the prettiest or palatable of research, but the work being done at North Carolina State University on a particularly nasty virus leads to better understanding of its spread and, thus, how it could be contained in the future. More importantly, the vomit machine shows how much of the virus becomes aerosolized and moves through the air, landing on nearby people and surfaces. This has been suspected to be a common route for the disease to spread, but was not proven until now thanks to the vomit machine. The end result was a plexiglass box that contained a scaled-down esophagus/stomach system attached to a small face that mimics human vomiting by upchucking vanilla pudding at a velocity, volume and viscosity that matches the real thing.

“We know the virus is shed in massive amounts in the fecal material of infected individuals-I mean like millions to billions of particles per gram”, says study author Lee-Ann Jaykus, professor of food science at North Carolina State University and scientific director of the USDA-NIFA Food Virology Collaborative (NoroCORE).

“At most, only 0.02 percent of the total virus in the vomit was aerosolized”, Jaykus said.

They contaminated the artificial vomit with a virus called the MS2 bacteriophage – this virus is not harmful to humans but is a commonly used proxy for norovirus. “And norovirus can hang around for weeks, so anyone that touches that table and then puts their hand to their mouth could be at risk for infection”.

Norovirus consists of more than 30 related viruses, and it causes vomiting and diarrhea. The virus causes your stomach or intestines or both to get inflamed.

“Epidemiological studies have suggested that norovirus can be “aerosolized” through vomiting, meaning that small particles containing norovirus can become airborne when someone throws up”, Grace Thompson, a recent Ph.D. graduate who has studied how norovirus can spread through vomit, said in the news release.

More information regarding the findings can be seen via the journal PLOS ONE.

You may also take comfort that the researchers plan to continue their work that makes them vomit for the betterment of humankind.

The virus is also known to be passed around in healthcare facilities, catered events, hotels, schools and other places where people are in close contact with each other.

“In terms of overall percentage, not a lot of the virus is aerosolized”, says professor Francis de los Reyes II.