Interventions to prevent surface transmission of an infectious virus based on real human touch behavior: a case study of the norovirus.
Int J Infect Dis
; 122: 83-92, 2022 Sep.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1867234
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES:
Infectious viruses (e.g., SARS-CoV-2, norovirus) can transmit through surfaces. Norovirus has infected millions of individuals annually. Interventions on norovirus transmission in high-risk indoor environment are important.METHODS:
This study focused on a restaurant in Guangzhou, China. More than 41,000 touches by both diners and staff members were collected using video cameras. A surface transmission model was developed and combined with these real human touch behaviors to analyze the effectiveness of different norovirus prevention strategies.RESULTS:
When the virus carrier was a diner, the virus intake fraction of diners in the same table was the highest. Increasing the touch frequency on personal private surfaces would reduce the virus exposure. The virus intake fraction was reduced by 18.4% on average if public surfaces were not touched. Optimization on surface materials could reduce the virus intake fraction by 86.6%. Additionally, disinfecting tablecloths, clothes of diners, and chairs were the three most effective surface disinfection strategies.CONCLUSION:
Controlling human touch behavior (e.g., reducing the self-touches on mucous membranes) is more effective than surface disinfection in controlling norovirus transmission, but surface disinfection cannot be ignored because human behavior is difficult to be controlled.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Communicable Diseases
/
Norovirus
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Case report
/
Experimental Studies
/
Prognostic study
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
Int J Infect Dis
Journal subject:
Communicable Diseases
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
J.ijid.2022.05.047
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