ArticleJournal of infection and public health2023
Real-life lack of evidence of viable SARS-CoV-2 transmission via inanimate surfaces: The SURFACE study.
Article in Journal of infection and public health, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Designing Scalable Mechano-Virucidal Nanostructured Acrylic Surfaces for Enhanced Viral Inactivation.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
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Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionAlthough the potential role of inanimate surfaces in SARS-CoV-2 transmission has yet to be adequately assessed, it is still routine practice to apply deep and expensive environmental disinfection protocols. The aim of this study was to verify the presence of viable virus on different surfaces exposed to droplets released by coughing in SARS-CoV-2 RNA positive patients.
methodsPatients admitted to hospital with a positive SARS-CoV-2 real-time (RT)-PCR swab were asked to cough on steel, cardboard, plastic and their hands. Surfaces were tested at baseline (T
resultsTen RNA-positive patients were enrolled into the study. The median cycle threshold value was 20.7 (range 13-28.3). Nasopharyngeal swabs from 3 of the patients yielded viable virus 2-10 days post-inoculation. However, in none of the patients was it possible to isolate viable SARS-CoV-2 from sputum under identical experimental conditions. A CPE was instead already visible using laboratory-propagated SARS-CoV-2 strains at 20', 60', 180' while an effect at 24 h required a 6-day incubation.
conclusionThe evidence emerging from this real-life study suggests that droplets delivered by SARS-CoV-2 infected patients on common inanimate surfaces did not contain viable virus. In contrast, and in line with several laboratory-based experiments, in vitro adapted viruses could survive and grow on the same fomites.
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