Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 environmental contamination in hospital rooms is uncommon using viral culture techniques

Bobby G Warren; Alicia Nelson; Aaron Barrett; Bechtler Addison; Amanda Graves; Raquel Binder; Gregory Gray; Sarah Lewis; Becky A Smith; David J Weber; Emily E Sickbert-Bennett; Deverick J Anderson

doi:10.1093/cid/ciac023

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 environmental contamination in hospital rooms is uncommon using viral culture techniques

Clin Infect Dis. 2022 Aug 24;75(1):e307-e309. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciac023.

Authors

Bobby G Warren^{1

2}, Alicia Nelson^{1

2}, Aaron Barrett^{1

2}, Bechtler Addison¹, Amanda Graves¹, Raquel Binder², Gregory Gray³, Sarah Lewis^{1

2}, Becky A Smith^{1

2}, David J Weber⁴, Emily E Sickbert-Bennett⁴, Deverick J Anderson^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Duke Center for Antimicrobial Stewardship and Infection Prevention, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
² Division of Infectious Diseases, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
³ Division of Infectious Disease, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, USA.
⁴ Division of Infectious Diseases, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.

Abstract

We assessed environmental contamination of inpatient rooms housing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients in a dedicated COVID-19 unit. Contamination with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 was found on 5.5% (19/347) of surfaces via reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction and 0.3% (1/347) of surfaces via cell culture. Environmental contamination is uncommon in hospitals rooms; RNA presence is not a specific indicator of infectious virus.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; environmental contamination; pandemic.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

COVID-19*
Culture Techniques
Environmental Pollution / analysis
Hospitals
Humans
RNA, Viral
SARS-CoV-2*

Substances

RNA, Viral

Grants and funding

U54 CK000483/CK/NCEZID CDC HHS/United States