Aircraft Cabin Filter-based Respiratory Disease Surveillance

During the COVID-19 pandemic, air travel passengers have been viewed as a harbinger of new variant transmission internationally. Routine testing of the aircraft environment, specifically the aircraft cabin air filter, may be a cost-effective proxy for the collective microbiota of its temporary inhabitants. We seek to determine the feasibility of detecting SARS-CoV-2 variants and other respiratory viruses—perhaps even emerging alpha- and betacoronaviruses that could help predict the next pandemic—on aircraft cabin air filters using a variety of molecular testing strategies. In so doing, we will demonstrate proof-of-principle that surveillance of filters from aircraft ventilation systems may be translated into public health tools and outcomes.