1986/04/01 by Syed A. Sattar, Nellie Lloyd-Evans, NELLIE LLOYD-EVANS +2 · 2 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Medicine · #Food Safety and Hygiene #Infection Control and Ventilation #Viral gastroenteritis research and epidemiology
paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/s0022172400066055
crossref issued 1986/04/01 · crossref published 1986/04/01 · crossref published-print 1986/04/01 · openalex publication_date 1986/04/01 · crossref published-online 2009/10/19 · crossref created 2009/10/19 · crossref deposited 2020/05/23 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref indexed 2026/07/30 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
To assess the potential of fomites and environmental surfaces as vehicles in the transmission of rotaviral diarrhoea, disks (1 cm diameter) of various porous and non-porous materials were contaminated with about 10(5) plaque-forming units of the Wa strain of human rotavirus (HRV) suspended in faecal matter. The contaminated disks were then held for 10 days at either room temperature (22 +/- 2 degrees C) or 4 degrees C with the relative humidity (RH) at the high (85 +/- 5%), medium (50 +/- 5%) or low (25 +/- 5%) level. Survival was longer on non-porous surfaces at the lower temperature and at lower humidity. In contrast, survival on porous surfaces was very variable; better on cotton-polyester than on poster card or paper currency on which HRV survived very poorly. These results suggest that under the right environmental conditions, HRV-contaminated objects could play a role in the transmission of rotavirus infections in hospitals, nursing homes and day-care centres.