Department of Aviation Medicine, Navy Medicine Readiness and Training Unit Jacksonville, Jacksonville, FL 32212, USA.
Mil Med. 2021 Jul 1;186(7-8):e832-e835. doi: 10.1093/milmed/usaa548.
It is well established that coronavirus disease 2019 is primarily transmitted through respiratory droplets, and there is mounting research speculation that it may also be transmitted via fomites. Several studies have shown that the virus can persist on both porous and nonporous surfaces for hours to days, depending upon the material. This article examines three cases of polymerase chain reaction-proven severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection with several additional individuals meeting CDC close contact criteria. In 1 case, 195 downstream contacts were all tested to prevent a mass outbreak in a deployment posture. Analysis of these contacts yielded only a single positive test, which could be reasonably ascribed to respiratory droplet transmission. While these cases and their contacts ultimately represent a small sample size, we suggest fomite spread may not be a significant means of transmission for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 in real-world operational scenarios.
众所周知，2019 年冠状病毒病主要通过呼吸道飞沫传播，越来越多的研究推测它也可能通过接触污染物传播。有几项研究表明，病毒在多孔和非多孔表面上可存活数小时到数天，具体取决于材料。本文研究了三例聚合酶链反应（PCR）证实的严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒 2 感染病例，还有数名其他符合美国疾病控制与预防中心（CDC）密切接触标准的人员。在 1 例病例中，对 195 名下游接触者进行了检测，以防止在部署状态下发生大规模爆发。对这些接触者的分析仅得出 1 例阳性检测，这可以合理归因于呼吸道飞沫传播。虽然这些病例及其接触者最终代表了一个小的样本量，但我们认为，在实际操作场景中，接触污染物传播可能不是严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒 2 的重要传播方式。
