The increasing incidence of infectious diseases has prompted the application of Ultraviolet Germicidal Irradiation (UVGI) for the inactivation of viruses.This study evaluates UVGI effectiveness for airborne viruses in a laboratory test chamber by determining the effect of UV dosage,different nucleic acid type of virus (single-stranded RNA,ssRNA; single-stranded DNA,ssDNA; double-stranded RNA,dsRNA; and double-stranded DNA,ds-DNA),and relative humidity on virus survival fraction after UVGI exposure.For airborne viruses,the UVGI dose for 90 inactivation was 339-423 mu W sec/cm~2 for ssRNA,444-494 mu W sec/cm~2 for ssDNA,662-863 mu W sec/cm~2 for dsRNA,and 910-1196 mu W sec/cm~2 for ds-DNA.For all four tested,the UVGI dose for 99 inactivation was 2 times higher than that for 90 inactivation.Airborne viruses with single-stranded nucleic acid (ssRNA and ssDNA) were more susceptible to UV inactivation than were those with double-stranded ones (dsRNA and dsDNA).For all tested viruses at the same inactivation,the UVGI dose at 85 RH was higher than that at 55 RH,possibly because water sorption onto a virus surface provides protection against UV-induced DNA or RNA damage at higher RH.In summary,UVGI was an effective method for inactivation of airborne virus.
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