Human Coronavirus 229E Remains Infectious on Common Touch Surface Materials

Warnes, Sarah L.; Little, Zoë R.; Keevil, C. William

Previous studies have shown that murine norovirus (MNV) and human norovirus, highly infectious nonenveloped viruses that are resistant to environmental stress and impervious to many cleaning agents, are destroyed on copper and copper alloy surfaces (26) (27) (28) . HuCoV-229E is associated with a wide range of respiratory disease from mild colds to severe pneumonia in immuno-compromised people and has been implicated as an autoimmune trigger in multiple sclerosis (29, 30) . Infection with this virus occurs in a high proportion of the population in approximately 3-year cycles, incurring considerable hidden costs in lost work hours, and in this study was also used as a surrogate for the more virulent coronaviruses responsible for SARS and MERS (rather than using animal viruses or coronaviruses that primarily infect the gastrointestinal tract). In addition, a recent study also observed that HuCoV-229E shares important characteristics with MERS-coronavirus and also has an ancestral link with bats (31) . In this study, the ability of HuCoV-229E to retain infectivity on a range of common surface materials was investigated to understand the risk of disease dissemination. The potential use of biocidal surfaces to provide constant antiviral activity against continual surface recontamination could help to limit the spread of respiratory viruses; accordingly, the efficacy of a range of copper alloys to inactivate HuCoV-229E was also determined.