Mpox virus can replicate on surfaces for days

By Cara Murez

HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, May 18, 2023 (HealthDay News) — Most mpox cases are spread by skin-to-skin contact, but it’s possible to catch the virus by touching a contaminated surface in a home or hospital room, according to a new study

Researchers studying this found temperature made all the difference. The virus could survive at room temperature on a surface for up to 11 days. At 4 degrees Celsius (39 degrees Fahrenheit), it could survive for up to a month.

“Smallpox viruses are known for their ability to remain infectious in the environment for a long time,” explained study author Toni Meister, from the department of molecular and medical virology at the Ruhr University Bochum in Germany. “For monkeypox [now called mpox]however, we did not know the exact time frames until now.

“Our results support the WHO recommendation to use alcohol-based surface disinfectants,” Meister said in a university news release.

The study team applied the virus to disinfected stainless steel plates, storing them at different temperatures: at 4 degrees C, 22 degrees C (around 72 degrees F) and 37 degrees C (around 99 degrees F).

The researchers found little change in the amount of infectious virus during the first few days at any temperature.

It took five days for the virus concentration to drop significantly at 22 and 37 degrees C.

After six to seven days at 37 degrees, no reproducing virus was detected.

It took about 10 or 11 days for no infection to be possible at 22 degrees.

At 4 degrees C, it took 30 days for the virus to become non-infectious. It did not decline sharply until 20 days had passed.

“This is consistent with our experience that people can still contract monkeypox from household surfaces after almost two weeks,” said Eike Steinmann, head of Ruhr’s department of molecular and medical virology.

This means that it is important to disinfect surfaces. Alcohol-based surfaces were highly effective against mpox, while hydrogen peroxide-based disinfectants didn’t work, the researchers noted.

The study findings were recently published in the Infectious Disease Journal.

More information

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about mpox.

SOURCE: Ruhr University Bochum, press release, May 16, 2023