Group A rotavirus detection on environmental surfaces in a hospital intensive care unit.
BACKGROUND
Environmental surfaces can play a role in the spread of pathogens, such as enteric viruses, within a hospital. This study assessed the level of contamination of group A rotavirus (RV-A) on environmental surfaces samples from an adult intensive care unit in a hospital in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.


METHODS
A total of 504 environmental surface samples were obtained from multiple sites in the intensive care unit, including flushing buttons, telephones, and alcohol gel supports. Nested and quantitative reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) were used to detect and quantify RV-A levels through partial amplification of VP6 and NSP3 genes, respectively, and the viability of the viruses detected was assessed by MA-104 cell integrated cell culture/RT-PCR.


RESULTS
RV-A was detected by nested RT-PCR in 14% of the samples (73 of 504), with viral loads ranging from 3.4 genomic copies/mL to 2.9 × 10(3) genomic copies/mL. The nucleotide sequence of the amplicons obtained from nested RT-PCR confirmed that the positive samples were RV-A. Moreover, 3 of 10 strains investigated demonstrated viability by integrated cell culture/RT-PCR.


CONCLUSIONS
The detection of RV-A on environmental surface samples indicates a need for improvements to hospital cleaning procedures to reduce viral contamination, and suggests, as reported previously, that RV-A can be used as a biomarker to assess contamination in hospitals.
Laboratory of Comparative and Environmental Virology, Oswaldo Cruz Institute, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, Ministry of Health, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Ana Carolina
AC
Ganime
Filipe A
FA
Carvalho-Costa
Marcos Cesar L
MC
Mendonça
Carmen B
CB
Vieira
Marisa
M
Santos
Rubens
R
Costa Filho
Marize P
MP
Miagostovich
José Paulo G
JP
Leite
D001938:Brazil; D004783:Environmental Microbiology; D006761:Hospitals; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012401:Rotavirus / Q000145:classification* / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D019562:Viral Load; D014776:Virus Cultivation