Transmission of viruses via contact in a household setting: experiments using bacteriophage fX174 as a model virus.

A study showing how viruses are transmitted within a household via direct contact and via inanimate contact surfaces using the bacteriophage fX174 to contaminate the hands of volunteers and inanimate contact points and studying the pattern of transfer of the phage. Results showed the significance of indirect transmission via contaminated contact points, as the virus could be reisolated from all volunteers and from nearly all inanimate surfaces tested. All volunteers also became contaminated as a result of horizontal transmission (direct hand-to-hand contact). These results were confirmed under everyday conditions in a flat shared by four students. Journal of Hospital Infection 2000;46:61-66.