The role of resuspension in infection transmission

Deposited pathogens or pathogen-laden particles could be resuspended due to aerodynamic or mechanical disturbances, and leads to the risk of secondary infection once being airborne again. However, the role played by resuspension of pathogen-laden particles in infection transmission has not yet been well-understood. The existing risk assessment models rarely take particle resuspension into consideration in an explicit manna. In this work, a risk-assessment model capable of incorporating the effect of pathogen resuspension was proposed to assess the infection probability of B. anthracis spores indoors. The proposed risk-assessment model is based on the dose-response model and indoor particle dynamics where the pathogen-laden particle resuspension was incorporated into the mass balance model. Two resuspension scenarios, including the pathogen resuspension from ventilation duct due to air flow and from the floor of living room due to human walking were analyzed. The particle resuspension rates from ventilatio...