Evaluation of eluents for the recovery of an enveloped virus from hands by whole-hand sampling

Abstract

Aims The objective of this research is to evaluate eluents for recovery of an enveloped bacteriophage, Φ6, using whole-hand sampling. Methods and Results Virus was applied to the hands of volunteers and sampled by the glove juice method with 1.5% beef extract (BE), phosphate buffered saline (PBS), 0.01 and 0.1% Tween 80, tryptic soy broth (TSB), and 9% NaCl. Each volunteer underwent multiple rounds application and hand sampling. Mean log10 virus loss across trials was 2.6 for BE, 2.8 for PBS, 2.4 for TSB, 3.8 for NaCl, 3.0 for 0.1% Tween 80, and 2.9 for 0.01% Tween 80. Within each volunteer, there was a decline in viral loss from the first to last trial. Conclusions These eluents can recover Φ6 from hands with ~2-3 log10 loss, comparable to recoveries previously reported for influenza. Protein and detergent-based eluents may have similar recoveries, but recovery may still vary across repeated sampling. Significance and Impact Based on current work, protein-based eluents such as beef extract can maximize recovery of enveloped viruses during hand sampling, providing methods for evaluating survival and transmission of enveloped viruses on hands. Further exploration is needed of the effect of repeated sampling on recovery from whole-hand sampling.

Assessing Viral Transfer During Doffing of Ebola-Level Personal Protective Equipment in a Biocontainment Unit

“…The face was swabbed on each cheek for virus using a polyester swab dipped in eluent. Hands were sampled for virus using whole-hand sampling [20]. Scrubs were collected for sampling by complete immersion in eluent after removal [16].…”

Effectiveness of Ultraviolet-C Light and a High-Level Disinfection Cabinet for Decontamination of N95 Respirators

“…Table 1 shows the test organisms studied and their characteristics. The enveloped double-stranded RNA virus bacteriophage Phi6 has been used as a surrogate for coronaviruses and influenza in previous studies [17]. The bacteriophages MS2 and Phi6 were propagated as previously described in Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas syringae, respectively [1,17].…”

“…The enveloped double-stranded RNA virus bacteriophage Phi6 has been used as a surrogate for coronaviruses and influenza in previous studies [17]. The bacteriophages MS2 and Phi6 were propagated as previously described in Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas syringae, respectively [1,17]. The other test organisms were prepared as previously described [12][13].…”

A bioassay-based protocol for chemical neutralization of human faecal wastes treated by physico-chemical disinfection processes: A case study on benzalkonium chloride

“…Such chemical neutralization of disinfectant chemicals in disinfection experiments is standard practice to allow for reliable culture based assays of faecal indicator bacteria (e.g. Escherichia coli or Enterococcus faecalis (APHA, 2010a; c)) as bacterial pathogen surrogates, bacteriophages such as somatic coliphages (APHA, 2010d;Gall et al, 2016), FRNA phages (Shahrampour et al, 2015), Bacteroides phages (Ebdon et al, 2012), and bacteriophage φ6 (Casanova and Weaver, 2015b) (Casanova and Weaver, 2015a) as virus pathogen surrogates in complex sewage and faecal waste matrices. Failure to achieve adequate chemical neutralization of the disinfectant used in an experiment can result in flawed disinfection kinetics estimates based on CT conditions because inactivation could continue after the experiment is completed due to variable and unknown remaining concentrations of the disinfectant or its biocidal by-products.…”

“…After obtaining confirmatory results for two sets of trials using bacterial indicators, φ6 as a viral indicator was introduced to confirm these results. The indicator virus was chosen due to its structural and behavioural similarities to high risk enveloped viruses such as Ebolavirus and Avian influenza virus, and was prepared as described by Casanova and Weaver (2015a). After the neutralizer was added to the disinfectant and the virus stock was spiked into the mixture, the sample was plated using the double agar layer (DAL) method modified from US EPA Method 1602 (EPA, 2001).…”