Little COVID Viral Contamination Risk in Hospital Rooms
A study found that hospital rooms where COVID patients were treated had little to no active virus contaminations on surfaces. The finding, published in Clinical Infectious Diseases, concluded that contaminated surfaces in the hospital environment are unlikely to be a source of indirect transmission of the virus, contrary to earlier views.
“Early on in the pandemic, there were studies that found that SARS-CoV-2 could be detected on surfaces for many days,” said the study’s senior author, Professor Deverick Anderson. “But this doesn’t mean the virus is viable. We found there is almost no live, infectious virus on the surfaces we tested.”
The researchers tested a variety of surfaces in the hospital rooms of 20 COVID patients at Duke University Hospital over several days of hospitalisation, including on days 1, 3, 6, 10 and 14.
Samples were collected from the patients’ bedrail, sink, medical prep area, room computer and exit door handle. A final sample was collected at the nursing station computer outside the patient room.
PCR testing found that 19 of 347 samples gathered were positive for the virus, including nine from bedrails, four from sinks, four from room computers, one from the medical prep area and one from the exit door handle. All nursing station computer samples were negative.
Of the 19 positive samples, most (16) were from the first or third day of hospitalisation.
All 19 positive samples were screened for infectious virus via cell culture with only one sample, obtained on day three from the bedrails of a symptomatic patient with diarrhoea and a fever, demonstrating the potential to be infectious.
“While hospital rooms are routinely cleaned, we know that there is no such thing as a sterile environment,” Prof Anderson said. “The question is whether small amounts of viral particles detected on surfaces are capable of causing infections. Our study shows that this is not a high-risk mode of transmission.”
Prof Anderson said the findings reinforce the understanding that SARS-CoV-2 primarily spreads through person-to-person encounters via respiratory droplets in the air. He noted that people should concentrate on known anti-infection strategies such as masking and socially distancing to mitigate exposures to airborne particles.
Source: Duke University