. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2015 Mar 16.

Published in final edited form as: Am J Crit Care. 2013 Sep;22(5):382–389. doi: 10.4037/ajcc2013365

Table 1. Survival Time of Common Surface Contaminants.

Source	Organism/Route of Transmission	Length of Survival
Multi-drug resistant pathogens	Vancomycin Resistant Enterococcus (VRE), Methylocillin Resistant Staph Aureus (MRSA), Acinetobecter, Klebsiella, Pseudomonas, Shigella	Several months
Respiratory pathogens	Pertussis, Hemophylus Influenza, Vibrio cholera	2-6 days
Respiratory tract viruses	Coxsackie, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Influenza	2-6 days
Gastrointestinal viruses	Rota virus	2 months
Gastrointestinal bacteria	Clostridium Difficile	Several months
Fungal pathogens	Candida albicans	4 months
Blood borne viruses	Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), Hepatitis B Virus (HBV), Hepatitis C Virus (HCV)	Greater than one week