A study released in the last hours confirms for the first time empirically that the spread of coronavirus within homes was due to their presence on hands and surfaceswhich, in the face of future pandemics, justifies the need to maintain good hygiene.
The research, conducted by scientists at Imperial College London in collaboration with the UK Health Safety Agency (UKHSA) and the University of Oxford, shows that the risk of infection between close friends increased if the virus was present.” on people’s hands and frequently touched surfaces in the home.
Coronavirus: for the first time, they empirically check how the virus spread in homes
The study, led by Ajit Lalvani and published in The Lancet Microbedid not examine the presence of the virus in the air and therefore does not rule out that it was also transmitted in this way.
The researchers examined 414 contacts who lived in the same households as 279 diagnosed cases, between August 1, 2020, and March 31, 2021, at the height of the pandemic and when few people had been vaccinated.
All contacts underwent regular PCR tests for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 infection and swabs were also obtained from the hands, both of the primary cases and their relatives, as well as from the most manipulated surfaces, such as door handles. of refrigerators, faucets and kitchen utensils, such as the kettle.
Hands and surfaces, key to contagion
The researchers found that if the virus was detected on the hands of the primary cases, contacts in their household were 1.7 times more likely to become infected than those in households where the primary cases did not have the virus on their hands.
If the virus was present on surfaces, contacts were 3.8 times more likely to have the virus on their hands and 1.7 times more likely to test positive on PCR.
Until now, it had not been shown that the presence of the virus on people’s hands or on household surfaces allows anticipating transmission to contacts.
These findings, then, support the adoption of certain measures within the home when someone has an infection, in particular frequent hand washing, regular disinfection of surfaces and physical distancing, as well as the use of masks to slow the spread of the virus. Covid-19.
The authors caution that their research is observational only, so it does not prove “causation,” and they further acknowledge that non-white ethnicities and older age groups were overrepresented. On the other hand, due to the dates in which it was developed, the study is limited to the pre-alpha and alpha variants.