Infected surfaces as a source of transmissible material in healthcare settings dealing with COVID-19 patients

  1. GD Khedkar
  2. Pramod Bajaj
  3. Amol Kalyankar
  4. Rajeshree Deolalikar
  5. Vikram Khilare
  6. Aniket Khedkar
  7. Rahul Bajaj
  8. Chandraprakash Khedkar
  9. Bharathi Prakash
  10. Chaitali Khedkar
  11. Sunil Chavan
  12. P. Jyosthna
  13. Vidya Niranjan
  14. Manju Jilla
  15. Unmesh Takalkar

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Abstract

The disease COVID-19 has turned out to be a tremendous slayer and has had some of the most devastating impacts on human beings ever seen in history. To overcome this major public health crisis, an understanding of the transmission of the virus underlying this disease is of paramount importance. Evidence suggests that the most common route of transmission for the SARS-CoV-2 virus is likely via direct contact in person-to-person encounter with aerosol droplets. However, the possibility of transmission via contact with fomites from surfaces is a possible route of infection as well. Environmental contamination in rooms with COVID-19 patient has been widely observed due to viral shedding from both asymptomatic and symptomatic patients. Also, in hospitals, SARS-CoV-2 is known to survive on various surfaces for extended periods of time. Because repetitive contact cycles can spread the virus from one surface to the other in healthcare settings, here we evaluated contamination on different types of surfaces commonly found in healthcare settings. Also, based on various datasets, we analyzed the importance of various surfaces in transmission modalities. Based on the findings of this study, decontamination of surfaces that frequently are in touch contact throughout all segments of the healthcare system should constitute an important part of the infection control and prevention of COVID-19. We also recommend the selection of a non-reactive disinfectant for hospital monitors, devices, ventilators and computers so that active surface disinfection can be effected without damage to the devices.

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  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2021.08.06.21261491: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Ethicsnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    For RNA isolation, MagRNA-II viral RNA extraction kits were used (Genes2Me Pvt. Ltd, Gurgaon, India) in a RNA purification machine (Thermo Fisher Flex, USA) following the manufacturers protocol.
    Thermo Fisher Flex
    suggested: (Thermo Fisher Qubit 2.0 Fluorometer Qubit 2.0, RRID:SCR_020553)

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  2. Version published to 10.1101/2021.08.06.21261491v1 on medRxiv