Classroom environment in the transmission of respiratory diseases.

• Grant number: 24/20528-4
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: November 01, 2025
• End date: October 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Medicine - Pathological Anatomy and Clinical Pathology
• Principal Investigator: Heitor Franco de Andrade Junior
• Grantee: Heitor Franco de Andrade Junior
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina (FM). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• City of the host institution: São Paulo

Abstract

The school environment was considered an important source of contamination for children and adults during the COVID pandemic, but there was no physical or biological evidence of greater risk in the school environment. The school environment with individual desks was empirically defined as safe by measuring tuberculosis transmission in childhood in the 19th century, but this data has never been evaluated at the level of current microbiology. New exchange-free air cooling systems have recently been introduced in school environments. In this project, we intend to study the current classroom environment at a university and in secondary schools, through the use of air quality control equipment, measuring particles and other components of the air, especially hydrocarbons, aldehydes, particles and carbon dioxide, during the occupancy of the rooms. Microbiological measurements will be carried out by filtering air particles in a continuous bath evaporator, a silent domestic machine that does not interfere with the quality of the class. The aim is to determine the incidence of respiratory diseases before and after the academic semester through an active search with a weekly question about respiratory disease and by determining the prevalence of anti-influenza or anti-COVID IgA in students' saliva at the beginning of the academic semester. This research will allow us to physically and biologically monitor the conventional classroom as a source of transmission of respiratory diseases and create concepts that prevent this transmission in school environments. (AU)