Apartment Building Wastewater Systems May Enhance Pathogen Vertical Transmission

The Annals of Internal Medicine published a study on September 1, 2020, that offers circumstantial evidence that fecal aerosol transmission can play a role in the transmission of the SARS-CoV2 coronavirus in a high-rise building in China.

A related editorial stated 'Kang and colleagues report a case in which transmission probably occurred by indirect contact in an apartment building. They describe a situation in which infectious aerosols may have been formed as the result of turbulent flows within a wastewater plumbing system containing virus-laden feces. Viral particles seem to have been carried on air streams within the pipe network and entered the interior of the building from the wastewater system.'

'Aerosols, typically less than 5 µm in diameter, are light enough to be carried in the air, whereas larger droplets tend to fall out of the air before traveling long distances.'

These study authors and others working in this field highlight the possibility that a virus, such as SARS-CoV-2, may be transmitted in the manner described by Kang and colleagues. However, if 'building wastewater systems are a potential reservoir for many other viruses and bacteria; even in the absence of SARS-CoV-2, this is a cause for concern.'