BIAFTS: BIOAEROSOL FAST SAMPLER

Couterfog EBT DE LA UAH SL

Presentation video: BIAFTS

A consensus on accepting evidences of submicrometric aerosols being the main mechanism for transmission of SARS CoV-2 has been reached among the scientific community. These aerosols are invisible to the human eye, can remain floating in air for hours or days and can be drawn by air flows and wind quite a few hundred meters away. Detection and surveillance of the presence of active biological aerosols in air, particularly those containing viable COVID19 virus is a key issue for fighting the pandemic.

BIAFTS project aims to completely qualify and prove in operational environment a new technology for air surveillance and sampling of active virus in air. In combination with other existing techniques will be useful for fast detection of the presence of active virus in air. Qualification will be carried out progressively with phi29 virus, attenuated coronavirus 229E causing common cold (in Level 2 lab) and SARS-CoV-2 (in level 3 lab).