Researchers Millions of viruses are sinking from the atmosphere to the earth

Physicians are discovering new ways of spreading viruses

When it comes to the spread of viruses, most people think of transmission pathways, such as droplet infections or contaminated surfaces, through which a so-called smear infection can be transmitted. Researchers have now discovered that millions of viruses move in the Earth's atmosphere. From there they sink to the ground and infect new victims.

Scientists at the University of British Columbia, in collaboration with universities in Spain and the United States, found that millions of viruses are being transported to the Earth's atmosphere. From there, the pathogens sink unhindered back to earth and lead to new infections. The physicians published the results of their study in the English-language journal "Multidisciplinary Journal of Microbial Ecology".

A new way of transmitting viruses

Surely most people have ever gone through an infectious disease. In such cases, the question often arises as to how or where they came into contact with the pathogens. Of course, one usually thinks in such a case of a so-called droplet infection, which was triggered by an already infected person. However, the reason could be an infection by viruses, which have sunk from our earth atmosphere.

Why do genetically identical viruses occur at enormous distances from each other?

For some infections, the question arises as to how viruses can get from one end of the world to the other end of the world. The viruses are transported according to current knowledge on so-called suspended organic particles in gas or air into the earth's atmosphere. There they move in gigantic clouds of microbes and sink then by dust particles or with the rain again on the earth down. The results of the study could explain how genetically identical viruses can occur at enormous distances from each other, explain the scientists.

Millions of viruses enter the Earth's atmosphere every day

In their study, researchers quantified for the first time the number of viruses that enter the atmosphere from the soil. The number is huge and amounts to more than 800 million per square meter daily. While the viruses and bacteria can not reach the heights of the stratosphere, they still go far beyond the altitude at which weather conditions prevail, the experts explain. At this altitude, which is also referred to as the troposphere, the viruses can then be transported thousands of kilometers before finally sinking back to the earth's surface. Millions of viruses get from one place to another. Bacteria also move on in this way, albeit in much smaller quantities, the doctors say.

Main part of the transported viruses can not infect humans

For example, if a large sandstorm develops in the Sahara, it may cause dust from the same storm to eventually reach the US, say the authors. The viruses and bacteria could probably be transported even further. However, most of the viruses involved can not infect humans. Although it is possible that human pathogens are transmitted in this way, but not in such large numbers. Most human pathogens do not survive such a journey through the atmosphere, according to the researchers. If such viruses could be transported in large numbers, diseases would spread much more, explain the scientists. (As)