Virus DNA spread across hospital ward in 10 hours

The study, published as a letter in the Journal of Hospital Infection, aimed to safely simulate how SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, may spread across surfaces in a hospital.

Instead of using the SARS-CoV-2 virus, researchers artificially replicated a section of DNA from a plant-infecting virus, which cannot infect humans, and added it to a millilitre of water at a similar concentration to SARS-CoV-2 copies found in infected patients’ respiratory samples.

Researchers placed the water containing this DNA on the hand rail of a hospital bed in an isolation room – that is, a room for higher-risk or infected patients – and then sampled 44 sites across a hospital ward over the following five days.

They found that after 10 hours, the surrogate genetic material had spread to 41% of sites sampled across the hospital ward, from bed rails to door handles to arm rests in a waiting room to children’s toys and books in a play area. This increased to 59% of sites after three days, falling to 41% on the fifth day.

Dr Lena Ciric (UCL Civil, Environmental & Geomatic Engineering), a senior author of the study, said: “Our study shows the important role that surfaces play in the transmission of a virus and how critical it is to adhere to good hand hygiene and cleaning.

To read the full article, click here.

Atomium-EISMD