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In a groundbreaking discovery, Japanese researchers have found that SARS-coV-2 can remain active on human skin for at least nine hours, and therefore hand washing was key to avoiding COVID-19 disease. In a study published this month in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, scientists used a model for clinical studies of pathogen survival on human skin and clarified the stability of SARS-CoV-2 in human skin.
According to the research, the scientists studied the stability of SARS-CoV-2 and influenza A virus (IAV) in the mucus of the upper respiratory tract and also on the surface of human skin. While the effectiveness of dermal disinfection was up to 80 percent with the use of ethanol, scientists in a shocking discovery noted that the strain lived up to nine hours. However, this time period, compared to other objects, showed that the virus was more rapidly inactivated on skin surfaces compared to stainless steel, glass or plastic objects, where it remained alive much longer.
“SARS-CoV-2 showed similar stability in mucus,” the research indicated.
The 9-hour survival of SARS-CoV-2 on human skin may increase the risk of contact transmission compared to IAV, scientists after clinical research concluded. Furthermore, they added that proper hand hygiene was therefore extremely important in removing SARS-CoV-2 from the skin which could easily lead to transmission on human contact or by touching surfaces.
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Survive 28 days on phones
Similarly, the COVID-19-causing pathogen was found to have the ability to survive on banknotes, phone screens, and stainless steel for up to 28 days. Australia’s national science agency said in a report that SARS-Cov-2 was found to survive on this everyday material for much longer than anticipated. This posed a threat due to surface transmission, as scientists shed light on the fact that the pathogen was not only transmitted through coughing, sneezing, or talking to someone at a closer distance, but contamination from surface was also a leading cause of Covid-19 infections. According to the US CDC, respiratory droplets contaminated with coronavirus can fall on surfaces and objects and a person could contract COVID-19 by touching that surface with the virus and then touching their mouth, nose, or eyes.
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(Image credit: AstraZeneca / representative image)
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