A Virus Can Spread Like Wildfire in Any Indoor Setting
Published at(TUSCON, Ariz.) — Germ-a-phobes of the world unite. Your anxiety appears to be well-founded. At least that’s what a new study suggests.
The study measured just how quickly viruses were spread in a work setting despite people’s best efforts to isolate themselves from sneezing and coughing co-workers.
To demonstrate how avoiding germs may be a losing battle, study researcher Charles Gerba, a microbiologist at the University of Arizona, placed a harmless virus on a few surfaces inside an office building, hotel rooms and a health care facility.
Later in the day, Gerba’s team sampled between 60 and 100 surfaces in each of the buildings that were contaminated with bacteriophage MS-2.
The result was that the virus was found on 40 to 60 percent of light switches, door knobs, tabletops and various other surfaces within two-to-four hours.
What Gerba was trying to prove was how a far more dangerous infectious agent, such as norovirus, can move swiftly through just about any place where people congregate.
So is it really a losing battle? Not entirely, according to Gerba, who says that disinfecting wipes and diligent hand cleaning reduces the spread of viruses by as much as 80 to 99 percent.
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