On Wednesday, Apr 7, 2021 1:00 PM EDT, Karen Kormuth, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Biology at Bethany College in West Virginia, will present “Environmental Persistence and Transmissibility of Respiratory Viruses: A Laboratory Perspective.”
Understanding mechanisms of virus transmission is critical to developing guidance for cleaning and day-to-day activities, but this is not a trivial problem. The relative contributions of aerosol and fomite transmission of respiratory viruses are difficult to determine, and can be influenced by a variety of viral, host and environmental factors.
Using lessons learned from influenza, this webinar will describe laboratory approaches to understanding environmental persistence of viruses both in the air and on surfaces, including caveats of various experimental approaches. Looking ahead, “cleaning for health” should not be constrained to combat only one mode of transmission, but rather should be molded to suit this complex problem.
What you will learn:
- To identify the modes of respiratory virus transmission, and discuss the relative importance of each transmission mode
- To adapt lessons learned by empirical study of influenza virus stability in the air and on surfaces to the current pandemic
- To understand environmental, host, and viral factors driving persistence of viruses with respect to improving approaches to ‘cleaning for health’
WEBINAR: “Environmental Persistence and Transmissibility of Respiratory Viruses: A Laboratory Perspective,” presented by Karen Kormuth, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Biology at Bethany College in West Virginia. This webinar will take place on Wednesday, Apr 7, 2021 1:00 PM EDT.
Dr. Kormuth completed her Ph.D. in Biological Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University in 2016, followed by a postdoctoral research position under Dr. Seema Lakdawala at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and in close collaboration with Dr. Linsey Marr (Virginia Tech). Dr. Kormuth specialized in understanding factors that influence transmission of human and animal influenza viruses, identifying a role for human airway mucus in environmental persistence of viruses in the air and on surfaces. Since 2019, Dr. Kormuth has been an Assistant Professor of Biology at Bethany College in WV, where she continues to investigate virus stability with her students.
Each webinar will target a different area of transmission, look closely at the current research, and discuss cleaning and related strategies to mitigate risk. Cleaning for health, CIRI’s focus since it was established more than 15 years ago, has never been so real or so important as it is today.
“An incredible amount of research into SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 has been completed and is ongoing since the start of the pandemic,” said John Downey, CIRI Executive Director. “It’s vital that cleaning and restoration professionals learn ways to apply the research in practical ways to guide best practices.”
Video recordings will be available for those who register but are unable to attend the webinars live. Continuing education credits are available for each webinar and attendees will receive a certificate of attendance.
In March, CIRI hosted “COVID-19 and Pandemic Preparedness: Science-Based Solutions for Service Providers,” a full-day virtual symposium attended by more than 1,000 cleaning and restoration professionals. To learn more about this event and sign up to watch the video recordings, click here.
Registration for this bonus, value-added webinar is $49 for CIRI members, $69 for nonmembers who registered to attend at least one of the prior “COVID-19: The Second Wave” webinars, and $99 for non-members.
