Persistence of coronaviruses on inanimate surfaces and their inactivation with biocidal agents

By G. Kampf, D. Todt, S. Pfaender, E. Steinmann. Journal of Hospital Infection, 2020

3,386 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Currently, the emergence of a novel human coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, has become a global health concern causing severe respiratory tract infections in humans. Human-to-human transmissions have been described with incubation times between 2-10 days, facilitating its spread via droplets, contaminated hands or surfaces. We therefore reviewed the literature on all available information about the persistence of human and veterinary coronaviruses on inanimate surfaces as well as inactivation strategies with biocidal agents used for chemical disinfection, e.g. in healthcare facilities. The analysis of 22 studies reveals that human coronaviruses such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) coronavirus, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) coronavirus or endemic human coronaviruses (HCoV) can persist on inanimate surfaces like metal, glass or plastic for up to 9 days, but can be efficiently inactivated by surface disinfection procedures with 62–71% ethanol, 0.5% hydrogen peroxide or 0.1% sodium hypochlorite within 1 minute. Other biocidal agents such as 0.05–0.2% benzalkonium chloride or 0.02% chlorhexidine digluconate are less effective. As no specific therapies are available for SARS-CoV-2, early containment and prevention of further spread will be crucial to stop the ongoing outbreak and to control this novel infectious thread.

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/af863519e043b2e96819f96344bb91f90c8d085f

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

1. Mazhar Salim Al Zoubi
2. Amjad D. Al-Nasser
3. L. Abeler-Dörner
4. N. Curtis
5. Junke Long
6. Firas A. Rabi
7. Ghena A Kasasbeh
8. Dunia M Salameh

Citations in the corpus

• A Review of Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) (2020, unknown): “[13] .”
• Quantifying SARS-CoV-2 transmission suggests epidemic control with digital contact tracing (2020, background): “Mean = 4 (39); variety of values for many”
• SARS-CoV-2 and Coronavirus Disease 2019: What We Know So Far (2020, background): “Reassuringly, cleansing of surfaces with common biocidals such as ethanol and sodium hypochlorite is very effective at inactivation of the coronaviruses within 1 min of exposure [36].”
• The epidemiology, diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19 (2020, methodology): “Human coronaviruses can be efficiently inactivated within 1 min using surface disinfection procedures with 62-71% ethanol, 0.5% hydrogen peroxide or 0.1% sodium hypochlorite [85] .”
• Coronavirus Infections in Children Including COVID-19 (2020, background): “72, 244 SUMMARY SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 infections seem to affect children less commonly and less severely as compared with adults.”
• Minimising the present and future plastic waste, energy and environmental footprints related to COVID-19 (2020, unknown): “[22] corroborated these results.”