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Contamination of Environmental Surfaces During Normal Daily Activities of Hotel Guests with Rhinovirus Colds
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Reported by Jules Levin
ICAAC, Sept 27-30, 2006, San Francisco
B. WINTHER1, K. MCCUE 2, K. ASHE 1, J. RUBINO 2, J. O. HENDLEY 1;
1Univ. of Virginia Hlth.System, Charlottesville, VA, 2Reckitt-Benckiser, Inc., Montvale, NJ.
Rhinovirus (RV) infection, responsible for half of all colds, is usually acquired by inoculation of virus on fingertips to conjunctiva or nose(self-inoculation). The source of virus contaminating the fingertips may be from contact with hands of a cold sufferer or from virus in mucus on environmental surfaces. This study was designed to assess viral contamination of surfaces by adults with active rhinovirus colds carrying out normal daily activities.
Hotel rooms were chosen as a convenient model for this study. Adults with natural colds who produced 2-3 ml of nasal secretion in 2 hours were enrolled and checked into a hotel in the afternoon. Volunteers were instructed to go about normal daily activities in the room, to spend 5 hours awake before sleeping, and to be awake 2 hours in the morning (no visitors). After identifying objects in the room which he/she had touched, the volunteer checked out. 10 of the touched sites were sampled by rubbing with a wetted cotton swab which was eluted into viral transport broth. Rhinovirus RNA was detected with RT-PCR.
15 volunteers (of 30 enrolled) were infected with RV and constituted the study group. Rhinovirus was detected on the fingertips of all 15. 35% of the 150 environmental sites sampled in the rooms were contaminated. Rhinovirus RNA was detected on 0-1 of 10 sites in rooms occupied by 5 volunteers, on 3 to 5 of 10 tested sites in the rooms of 7 volunteers, and on 8 of the 10 sites in the rooms of 3 volunteers. The most commonly contaminated sites in the 15 rooms occupied by these adults with RV colds were door handles (7/15), light switches and faucets (each 6/15), and telephones and TV remote controls (each 5/15).
Dr Hendley concluded that --Contamination of environmental surfaces with rhinovirus is common by an adult with a rhinovirus cold carrying out normal daily activities.
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