Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Study: Coronavirus Lives On Your Skin For 9 Hours
CIDRAP: COVID-19 Virus Survives On Skin, Hand Hygiene Highly Effective, Study Finds
SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, survives on human skin for 9 hours, much longer than a strain of influenza A virus (IAV). A study in Clinical Infectious Disease indicates that the long survival time on human skin may increase the contact-transmission risk of SARS-CoV-2 compared to other viruses, but finds hand hygiene is highly effective at neutralizing the virus. Contact transmission is considered a significant risk factor in the spread of COVID-19, highlighting the critical need for information about survival of the virus on skin. Previous studies have identified higher stability for coronaviruses compared with other enveloped viruses—those bearing a protective, fatty outer wrapping—like IAV. (10/5)
Yahoo Life: This Is Exactly How Many Hours Coronavirus Can Live On Your Skin
A Japanese study, which was published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases on Oct. 3, set out to determine how long the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) could survive on different surfaces such as stainless steel, glass, plastic, and human skin compared to a common strain of the flu, influenza A virus. The researchers found that the novel coronavirus remains active for longer on all surfaces, including human skin. In comparison to the more than nine hours COVID can live on your epidermis, the flu virus only survives for 1.8 hours. Even on non-human surfaces, the results also showed that the coronavirus lasted much longer than the flu, surviving for about an average of 11 hours to the flu's much shorter span of just over an hour and a half. (Mack, 10/5)
Also —
The New York Times: Nearly One-Third Of Covid-19 Patients In Study Had Altered Mental State
Nearly a third of hospitalized Covid-19 patients experienced some type of altered mental function — ranging from confusion to delirium to unresponsiveness — in the largest study to date of neurological symptoms among coronavirus patients in an American hospital system. And patients with altered mental function had significantly worse medical outcomes, according to the study, published on Monday in Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology. The study looked at the records of the first 509 coronavirus patients hospitalized, from March 5 to April 6, at 10 hospitals in the Northwestern Medicine health system in the Chicago area. (Belluck, 10/5)
