Survival and inactivation of human norovirus GII.4 Sydney on commonly touched airplane cabin surfaces

Dorra Djebbi-Simmons; Mohammed Alhejaili; Marlene Janes; Joan King; Wenqing Xu; Dorra Djebbi-Simmons; Mohammed Alhejaili; Marlene Janes; Joan King; Wenqing Xu

doi:10.3934/publichealth.2020046

AIMS Public Health

2020, Volume 7, Issue 3: 574-586. doi: 10.3934/publichealth.2020046

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Research article

Survival and inactivation of human norovirus GII.4 Sydney on commonly touched airplane cabin surfaces

School of Nutrition and Food Sciences, Louisiana State University Agricultural Center, Baton Rouge, LA, USA

Received: 11 May 2020 Accepted: 13 July 2020 Published: 29 July 2020

Human norovirus (HuNoV) is one of the leading causes of acute gastroenteritis globally. HuNoV outbreaks have been recently reported during air travels. Contaminated surfaces are known as a critical transmission route at various settings. The aim of this study was to provide key information about the survival and the decontamination of HuNoV on three commonly touched airplane cabin surfaces. In this study, we monitored the survival of HuNoV on seat leather, plastic tray table, and seatbelt for 30 days, with and without additional organic load (simulated gastric fluid). The efficacy of two EPA registered anti-norovirus disinfectants were also evaluated. Results showed that HuNoV was detected at high titers (>4 log₁₀ genomic copy number) for up to 30 days when additional organic load was present. Both tested disinfectants were found highly ineffective against HuNoV when the surface was soiled. The study showed that when the organic load was present, HuNoV was highly stable and resistant against disinfectants. Findings from this study indicated that appropriate procedures should be developed by airline companies with the help of public health authorities to decrease passengers' exposure risk to HuNoV.
- human norovirus,
- airplane cabin surfaces,
- survival,
- inactivation,
- EPA registered disinfectants
Citation: Dorra Djebbi-Simmons, Mohammed Alhejaili, Marlene Janes, Joan King, Wenqing Xu. Survival and inactivation of human norovirus GII.4 Sydney on commonly touched airplane cabin surfaces[J]. AIMS Public Health, 2020, 7(3): 574-586. doi: 10.3934/publichealth.2020046

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Abstract

Human norovirus (HuNoV) is one of the leading causes of acute gastroenteritis globally. HuNoV outbreaks have been recently reported during air travels. Contaminated surfaces are known as a critical transmission route at various settings. The aim of this study was to provide key information about the survival and the decontamination of HuNoV on three commonly touched airplane cabin surfaces. In this study, we monitored the survival of HuNoV on seat leather, plastic tray table, and seatbelt for 30 days, with and without additional organic load (simulated gastric fluid). The efficacy of two EPA registered anti-norovirus disinfectants were also evaluated. Results showed that HuNoV was detected at high titers (>4 log₁₀ genomic copy number) for up to 30 days when additional organic load was present. Both tested disinfectants were found highly ineffective against HuNoV when the surface was soiled. The study showed that when the organic load was present, HuNoV was highly stable and resistant against disinfectants. Findings from this study indicated that appropriate procedures should be developed by airline companies with the help of public health authorities to decrease passengers' exposure risk to HuNoV.

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture Hatch project (accession number 1008763). The authors would like to thank Dr. Janet Simonson for allowing them to use her lab's thermocycler machine in order to perform the RT-qPCR experiments.

Conflict of interest

No conflict of interest declared.

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