Journal
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF INFECTION CONTROL
Volume 40, Issue 6, Pages 544-547Publisher
MOSBY-ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.ajic.2011.07.017
Keywords
Fomites; Virus biomarker; Hospital infection; Adult ward
Funding
- Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development
- Oswaldo Cruz Institute
- Programa Estrategico de Pesquisa em Sa de (PAPES V)
- Fundacao Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (FAPER J)
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Background: Environmental surfaces can play a role in the spread of pathogens, such as enteric viruses, within a hospital. This study assessed the level of contamination of group A rotavirus (RV-A) on environmental surfaces samples from an adult intensive care unit in a hospital in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Methods: A total of 504 environmental surface samples were obtained from multiple sites in the intensive care unit, including flushing buttons, telephones, and alcohol gel supports. Nested and quantitative reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) were used to detect and quantify RV-A levels through partial amplification of VP6 and NSP3 genes, respectively, and the viability of the viruses detected was assessed by MA-104 cell integrated cell culture/RT-PCR. Results: RV-A was detected by nested RT-PCR in 14% of the samples (73 of 504), with viral loads ranging from 3.4 genomic copies/mL to 2.9 x 10(3) genomic copies/mL. The nucleotide sequence of the amplicons obtained from nested RT-PCR confirmed that the positive samples were RV-A. Moreover, 3 of 10 strains investigated demonstrated viability by integrated cell culture/RT-PCR. Conclusion: The detection of RV-A on environmental surface samples indicates a need for improvements to hospital cleaning procedures to reduce viral contamination, and suggests, as reported previously, that RV-A can be used as a biomarker to assess contamination in hospitals. Copyright (C) 2012 by the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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