• J. Med. Virol. · May 2021

    The detection of SARS-CoV-2 in outpatient clinics and public facilities during the COVID-19 pandemic.

    • Hossein M Elbadawy, Amin Khattab, Ali Alalawi, Fahad Dakilallah Aljohani, Hamza Sundogji, Ameira S Mahmoud, Meky Abouzied, Heba M Eltahir, Ziab Alahmadey, Saleh Bahashwan, and Bandar A Suliman.
    • Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, College of Pharmacy, Taibah University, Madinah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
    • J. Med. Virol. 2021 May 1; 93 (5): 2955-2961.

    AbstractThe transmission of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) can occur through an airborne route, in addition to contaminated surfaces and objects. In hospitals, it has been confirmed by several studies that SARS-CoV-2 can contaminate surfaces and medical equipment especially in hospitals dedicated to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients. The aim of this study was to detect the contamination of hands, objects, and surfaces in isolation rooms and also in outpatients' clinics in hospitals and polyclinics. Environmental contamination of public high-touch surfaces in public facilities was also investigated during an active COVID-19 pandemic. Random swabs were also taken from public shops, pharmacies, bakeries, groceries, banknotes, and automated teller machines (ATMs). Samples were analyzed for SARS-CoV-2 positivity using real-time polymerase chain reaction. In the COVID-19 regional reference hospital, only 3 out of 20 samples were positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA. Hand swabs from SARS-CoV-2-positive patients in isolation rooms were occasionally positive for viral RNA. In outpatients' clinics, door handles were the most contaminated surfaces. Dental chairs, sinks, keyboards, ophthalmoscopes, and laboratory equipment were also contaminated. Although no positive swabs were found in shops and public facilities, random ATM swabs returned a positive result for SARS-CoV-2. Although there is no longer a focus on COVID-19 wards and isolation hospitals, more attention is required to decontaminate frequently touched surfaces in health-care facilities used by patients not diagnosed with COVID-19. Additionally, high-touch public surfaces such as ATMs require further disinfection procedures to limit the transmission of the infection.© 2021 Wiley Periodicals LLC.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…