Ewww! Vomit-bot tests spread of vomit and norovirus

newscientist.com

Scientists have developed a vomit projectile machine robot – called vomit-bot – that simulates a person vomiting in order to test the spread of vomit. It also helps to provide evidence of how stomach bugs spread after someone has spewed (New Scientist, August 19, 2015).

Lee-Ann Jaykus, of the North Carolina State University in Raleigh, created the robot mouth and machinery – the vomit-bot. It is quarter of the size of a real face and mouth, and it can vomit, and vomit, and vomit, with ‘exacting regularity.’ The vomit can be modified to the amount, thickness, and pressure of the fluid that the machine ejects. It vomits into a glass cage, not onto the laboratory floor!

Researchers have used the machine to test the spread of vomit and whether it can project norovirus into the air, and if so, how much and how far does the virus spread. Norovirus is contagious and is responsible for 21 million infections each year in America.

Instead of testing the real virus, researchers used the safe, harmless virus MS2 bacteriophage. They wanted to test if it carries to other people through the air – i.e. whether it is airborne.

After tests of ‘forceful faux-vomiting’ the researchers found that only about one in 5000 virus particles were airborne (in spray). But this is still thousands of virus particles per vomit. And this can infect other people.

Norovirus – often called the winter vomiting bug – can remain virulent for weeks, so anyone touching the contaminated areas is at risk of contracting a viral gastroenteritis infection. It affects people of all ages, and can cause over 200,000 deaths globally each year (generally in less developed countries).

The next stage of testing is to investigate how long virus particles can survive and travel in the air.

Journal reference: PLoS One, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0134277

https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn28063-watch-vomiting-machine-simulate-how-stomach-bugs-spread/

Comments

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. That

Flaws in the Glass, a self-portrait by Patrick White: book review

The manuscript, Flaws in the Glass (1981), is Patrick Victor Martindale White’s autobiography. White, born in 1912 in England, migrated to Sydney, Australia, when he was six months old. For three years, at the age of 20, he studied French and German literature at King’s College at the University of Cambridge in England. Throughout his life, he published 12 novels. In 1957 he won the inaugural Miles Franklin Literary Award for Voss, published in 1956. In 1961, Riders in the Chariot became a best-seller, winning the Miles Franklin Literary Award. In 1973, he was the first Australian author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for The Eye of the Storm, despite many critics describing his works as ‘un-Australian’ and himself as ‘Australia’s most unreadable novelist.’ In 1979, The Twyborn Affair was short-listed for the Booker Prize, but he withdrew it from the competition to give younger writers the opportunity to win the award. His autobiography, Flaws in the Glass

The Beggars' Strike by Aminata Sow Fall: book review

The Beggar’sStrike (1979 in French and 1981 in English) is set in an unstated country in West Africa in a city known only as The Capital. Undoubtedly, Senegalese author Sow Fall writes of her own experiences. It was also encapsulated in the 2000 film, Battu , directed by Cheick Oumar Sissoko from Mali. Mour Ndiaye is the Director of the Department of Public Health and Hygiene, with the opportunity of a distinguished and coveted promotion to Vice-President of the Republic. Tourism has declined and the government blames the local beggars in The Capital. Ndiaye must rid the streets of beggars, according to a decree from the Minister. Ndiaye instructs his department to carry out weekly raids. One of the raids leads to the death of lame beggar, Madiabel, who ran into an oncoming vehicle as he tried to escape, leaving two wives and eight children. Soon after, another raid resulted in the death of the old well-loved, comic beggar Papa Gorgui Diop. Enough is enou

FEAST OR FAMINE

Search This Blog