Virus spreads throughout hospital ward despite strict controls

CORONAVIRUS can spread throughout a hospital ward from a single spot in an isolated room in just five days, despite infection control.

Researchers from University College Hospital and Great Ormond Street Hospital, left viral DNA on a hospital bed rail in an isolation room within a larger ward, and discovered that within 10 hours it was detectable in nearly half of all sites sampled within the ward.

Within three days the virus was picked up on 86 per cent of tested sites, and had travelled a distance of more than 260 feet, including moving into nearby rooms and treatment areas.

Much of Britain’s coronavirus epidemic is now in hospitals and care homes, and documents released last week showed that by the beginning of April, more than 900 patients had been put at risk in NHS hospitals due to outbreaks of the virus, mostly in dementia wards.

Researchers said it was critical to maintain scrupulous hygiene practices to prevent the virus spreading quickly through hospitals. Dr Lena Ciric of the school of Civil, Environmental & Geomatic Engineering at UCL, said: “Our study shows the important role that surfaces play in the transmission of a virus and how critical it is to adhere to good hand hygiene and cleaning.

“It was spread through the touching of surfaces by staff, patients and visitors. A person with Sars-cov-2, though, will shed the virus on more than one site, through coughing, sneezing and touching surfaces.”

The study, published as a letter in the Journal of Hospital Infection, aimed to safely simulate how the virus that causes Covid-19, may spread across surfaces in a hospital.

Instead of using the Sars-cov-2 virus, researchers artificially replicated a section of safe viral DNA and added it to a millilitre of water at a similar concentration to coronavirus.

Researchers placed the water containing this DNA on the handrail of a hospital bed in an isolation room – that is, a room for higher-risk or infected patients – and then sampled 44 sites across a hospital ward over the following five days. They found that after 10 hours, the surrogate genetic material had spread to 41 per cent of sites sampled across the hospital ward, from bed rails to door handles to arm rests in a waiting room to children’s toys and books in a play area.

The highest proportion of sites that tested positive came from the immediate bedspace area – including a nearby room with several other beds – and clinical areas such as treatment rooms.

On day three, 86 per cent of sampled sites in clinical areas tested positive, while on day four, 60 per cent of sampled sites in the immediate bedspace area tested positive. Co-author Dr Elaine Cloutman-green, lead healthcare scientist at Great Ormond Street Hospital, said: “Cleaning and handwashing represent our first line of defence against the virus. This study is a significant reminder that healthcare workers and all visitors to a clinical setting can help stop its spread through strict hand hygiene, cleaning of surfaces and proper use of personal protective equipment.”

The team believes that coronavirus may spread even more easily because droplets from coughs and sneezes contain mucus which is more sticky than the water they used.