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During flu season, many people go out of their way to wash down high-touch surfaces at home, at work, and in schools, hoping to avoid the spread of germs. An experimental laboratory study published in Microbiology and Immunology that evaluated the risk of influenza transmission through contact with contaminated surfaces, however, found the risk of picking up the flu from touching door handles and other objects is actually quite low. Researchers in Japan simulated “artificial coughs” onto floors, tables, and door handle levers and tested whether viable virus transferred to subjects’ fingertips after touching the objects. Despite spreading viral loads far above what would be expected from real-life scenarios, the live virus was rarely detected on fingertips that touched the contaminated surfaces. The analysis tested for transfer with plaque-forming assays and real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction to detect live virus and viral genetic material.
Cough into your elbow: The Japanese simulation study suggests that the risk of flu transmission occurring through environmental surfaces is minimal, which challenges patient and provider assumptions about flu transmission. While influenza is generally understood to be transmitted through inhaling virus-contaminating aerosol/droplets, the authors say the idea that contaminated surfaces transmit flu lacks quantitative evidence.
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