Aerosol sampling-based infection risk model for spatiotemporal resolution informed evaluation of on-site transmission...

Accurate quantification of on-site airborne transmission risk is critical for epidemic prevention and control. Environmental modeling study is hard for on-site monitoring of pathogens while instrument-based detection face barriers to evaluate potential risk directly. This study developed an aerosol sampling-based infection risk model (AS-IRM) that integrates the instruments, collection, and detection into the risk evaluation model. We demonstrated AS-IRM quantitatively evaluate potential transmission risk affected by interventions (exposure time, social distance, wearing mask) based on sampled pathogen. The study also introduced the aerosol-to-hydrosol enrichment rate (ER_AH) as a standardized metric for describing the spatiotemporal risk assessment capability of monitoring systems. Specifically, an ER_AH exceeding 3.02 × 10⁴ s^-1 can achieve five-second temporal resolution for accurate quantification of infection risk in micro-scale spaces (0.002 m³). Comparative study shows that existing theoretical models may significantly misestimate infection risk at various stages of aerosol transmission. Our developed AS-IRM aims to bridging the gap between pathogen monitoring technologies and risk models, which can refer to effective public health decision-making and future epidemic control.