ABSTRACT
Environmental surfaces are potential source of SARS-CoV2 transmission. The study assessed the efficacy of hospital disinfection policy and contamination of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2) RNA in COVID management Hospital. Inanimate surfaces from both patient areas (n = 70) and non-patient areas (n = 39) were sampled through surface swabbing and subjected to Reverse transcriptase PCR. Out of the 70 samples collected from the COVID hospital, SARS-CoV2 RNA positivity of 17.5% (7/40) and 6.7% (2/30) was seen in high risk and moderate risk area respectively. Samples from Non COVID related patient area such as CD ward and administrative block were assessed and the SARS CoV-2 RNA positivity was 0% and 10% respectively. Among the total 8 environmental surface samples positive for SARS-CoV2 RNA detected from the area surrounding the SARS-CoV2 infected patients, maximum positivity of 31.8% (7/22) was found among the environmental samples collected around the patients with < 20 Ct value in nasopharyngeal swab samples followed by 3.3% positivity (1/30) around patients with Ct value ranging from 20 to 25 whereas no SARS-CoV2 RNA (0/5) was detected around the patient with > 25 Ct value. Nearly 50% (2/4) of the surface samples came positive from the resident PPE and mobile of the treating doctors which largely elaborates the need for stringent doffing measurement and hand hygiene policy post doffing. The study emphasizes the necessity of frequent and aggressive disinfection policy to prevent nosocomial infection in such high risk areas within close vicinity of the patients.
ABSTRACT
After the havoc created by Spanish flu a century ago, the world is witnessing exactly a similar pandemic situation since the beginning of the year 2020. The unexplained respiratory illness with high morbidity & mortality which started in Wuhan, China and spread across the world was finally termed as COVID-19 disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 and later announced as pandemic by WHO. This novel virus SARS-CoV-2 is a new variant of SARS corona virus with high infectivity and mysterious pathophysiology. The major step towards containment of this pandemic is to scale up the testing for SARS-CoV-2 and thereby isolating and managing the patients at the earliest. Molecular amplification based methods such a Real time Polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), CBNAAT and TrueNAT are the most commonly used techniques for detection of SARS-CoV2. To utilize these diagnostic facilities optimally in the management of the suspected COVID 19 patients, it is of utmost importance for the healthcare providers to understand the intricacies related to these technologies. Thus, the technical details along with the pros & cons of these three amplification-based technologies for proper understanding of these diagnostic modalities for SARS COV-2 diagnosis are discussed herewith.