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. 1991 Sep;29(9):1991–1996. doi: 10.1128/jcm.29.9.1991-1996.1991

Prevention of surface-to-human transmission of rotaviruses by treatment with disinfectant spray.

R L Ward 1, D I Bernstein 1, D R Knowlton 1, J R Sherwood 1, E C Young 1, T M Cusack 1, J R Rubino 1, G M Schiff 1
PMCID: PMC270247  PMID: 1663519

Abstract

A model was developed to examine the effects of disinfectants on the transmission of infectious rotavirus from a dried surface to humans. The initial experiments were designed to find a method of preserving rotavirus infectivity during drying. Culture-adapted human rotavirus (CJN strain) was dried at room temperature in different organic suspensions, including fecal matter, several laboratory media, and nonfat dry milk (NDM). Recoveries of infectious virus were then compared. Fecal matter provided little protection in this study relative to distilled water, but the other suspensions were quite protective, especially NDM, which consistently allowed recoveries of greater than 50%. When 10(3) focus-forming units of unpassaged CJN virus were dried in NDM and administered to subjects who licked the dried material, 100% (8 of 8) became infected. The effect of Lysol brand disinfectant spray (LDS) was next examined. Although NDM provided some protection against inactivation by LDS, spraying under conditions recommended by the manufacturer consistently caused the CJN virus titer to decrease greater than 5 log10. Consumption of CJN virus (10(3) focus-forming units) sprayed with LDS caused no infection in 14 subjects, whereas 13 of 14 subjects who consumed the unsprayed virus became infected (P less than 0.00001). The methods developed in this study could be used to test the effects of other disinfectants on the spread of infectious rotavirus from inanimate surfaces to humans.

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1996

Selected References

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

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