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. 1986 Apr;96(2):277–289. doi: 10.1017/s0022172400066055

Institutional outbreaks of rotavirus diarrhoea: potential role of fomites and environmental surfaces as vehicles for virus transmission.

S A Sattar, N Lloyd-Evans, V S Springthorpe, R C Nair
PMCID: PMC2129638  PMID: 3701042

Abstract

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.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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