Probabilistic evaluation of aspirating doses of a Q fever pathogen

Abstract

The process of biological aerosol penetration into respiratory organs is connected with the estimation of the amount of an aspiration dose of microorganisms (D) a human gets in the center of infection. Here we submit a probabilistic model describing the process of hits of a Q fever pathogen in a human respiratory tract. This approach makes it possible to get qualitatively different probabilistic estimations of doses received and corresponding values of critical time intervals of exposure at which the amount accumulated in the respiratory tract turns into an infecting dose. This permits one to approach the explanation of the infection process in the context of the absence of its absolute nature, which is connected both with the immune system responses and the irregularity with which the recipient receives aspiration doses under conditions of artificial distribution of the microbe-bearing aerosol.