By RYOSUKE NONAKA/ Staff Writer
October 12, 2020 at 18:43 JST
Novel coronaviruses (Provided by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases)
The virus that causes COVID-19 can survive on human skin for about nine hours and is five times more durable than the influenza A virus, say researchers at Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine.
Their findings were published Oct. 3 in Clinical Infectious Diseases, an American medical journal.
Previous data showed that the novel coronavirus still has the potential to infect even two or three days after coming into contact with plastic and metallic surfaces.
Its “longevity” on human skin is a new finding.
The researchers applied the novel coronavirus and the influenza A virus in 100,000 or so batches of each to human skin donated for medical research and examined the change in the number of viruses.
It took one to two hours, or a median value of 1.8 hours, for the influenza A virus to vanish, while the novel coronavirus became undetectable after a period of between six to 11 hours for a median value of nine hours.
When the team applied disinfectant with 80 percent ethanol, the novel coronavirus level on the skin dropped significantly after 15 seconds and then became undetectable.
Ryohei Hirose, a doctor of gastroenterological medicine who led the team, said, the research “once again verified the risk of contact infection and the importance of alcohol disinfectant as infection prevention.”
The researchers recommend that people sanitize their hands and fingers and avoid touching their eyes, mouth and nose as hands are a hotspot for the novel coronavirus.
The health ministry says washing hands is “the most important anti-virus measure.”
Washing hands with water for just 15 seconds reduces the number of novel coronaviruses to a hundredth, the ministry said.
Washing hands thoroughly with soap for 10 seconds and rinsing them with water for 15 seconds reduces the number of viruses even further to 1/10,000.
After washing hands, there is no need to use a hand sanitizer, the ministry said.
The research paper can be read here: (https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciaa1517)
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