In a new study, researchers found that most cases of Mpox are spread through skin-to-skin contact, but it is possible to catch the virus by touching a contaminated surface in a home or hospital room.
Monkeypox survives at room temperature
And the researchers discovered that the temperature made a big difference, as the virus can live at room temperature on different surfaces for up to 11 days, at a temperature of 4 degrees Celsius, and can live for up to a month.
For monkeypox, which is now known as Mpox, we didn’t know the exact time frames until now, says study author Toni Meister, from the Department of Molecular and Medical Virology at Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany. .
“Our results support the World Health Organization’s recommendation to use alcohol-based surface disinfectants,” Meister said in a university news release.
Testing the ability of monkeypox to survive in different temperatures
The study team placed the virus on sterile stainless steel plates, and stored them at different temperatures: at 4°C, 22°C, and 37°C.
Results
The researchers found little change in the number of infective viruses during the first few days at whatever temperature they put them.
It took five days for the virus concentration to drop significantly at 22 and 37°C, and after six to seven days at 37°C, no virus was detected capable of replication.
And it took about 10 or 11 days for infection to not be possible at 22 degrees.
At 4°C, it took 30 days for the virus to lose its infective ability, and it wasn’t until 20 days that the ability dropped sharply.
Efficacy of antiseptics against monkeypox
“This is consistent with our experience that people are still susceptible to monkeypox from surfaces in the home after approximately two weeks,” says Eik Steinmann, Head of the Department of Molecular and Medical Virology at Ruhr.
This means that it is important to disinfect all surfaces, and the researchers noted that surfaces containing alcohol were very effective in eliminating monkeypox, while disinfectants containing hydrogen peroxide did not do the job.
