新型冠狀病毒可以在物體表面存活2-3天

新型冠狀病毒可以在物體表面存活2-3天

How long can the new coronavirus live on a surface, like say, a door handle, after someone infected touches it with dirty fingers? A study out this week finds that the virus can survive on hard surfaces such as plastic and stainless steel for up to 72 hours and on cardboard for up to 24 hours.

新型冠狀病毒在被感染者用臟手指接觸門把手等物體表面后，還能存活多久?本周的一項研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，這種病毒可以在塑料和不銹鋼等硬面上存活72小時，在硬紙板上存活24小時。

"This virus has the capability for remaining viable for days," says study author, James Lloyd-Smith, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California, Los Angeles, who researches how pathogens emerge.

“這種病毒有能力存活數(shù)天，”該研究的作者、加州大學洛杉磯分校生態(tài)學和進化生物學助理教授詹姆斯·勞埃德-史密斯說。他專門研究病原體是如何出現(xiàn)的。

Although the World Health Organization had previously estimated the survival timeon surfaces to be a "few hours to a few days" based on research on other coronaviruses, this is the first study by scientists at a federal laboratory to test the actual virus causing the current pandemic, SARS-CoV-2.

雖然世界衛(wèi)生組織此前根據(jù)對其他冠狀病毒的研究，估計其表面存活時間為“幾小時到幾天”，但這是聯(lián)邦實驗室的科學家首次對導致當前大流行的實際病毒SARS-CoV-2進行研究。

The study is out in preprint form and expected to be published.

這項研究以預印本的形式發(fā)表，預計將出版。

Interestingly, some surfaces are less hospitable to SARS-CoV-2. For instance, the virus remained viable on copper for only about four hours.

有趣的是，有些表面對SARS-CoV-2不那么友好。例如，這種病毒在銅上的存活時間只有4小時左右。

It's useful to know how long it can stay alive of course, because the virus can contaminate surfaces when an infected person sneezes or coughs. Virus-laden respiratory droplets can land on doorknobs, elevator buttons, handrails or countertops — and spread the virus to anyone who then touches these surfaces.

當然，知道它能存活多久是很有用的，因為當感染者打噴嚏或咳嗽時，病毒會污染表面。攜帶病毒的飛沫會落在門把手、電梯按鈕、扶手或工作臺上，并將病毒傳播給任何接觸這些表面的人。

To test the survival time of the virus, scientists at the Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Montana, part of the National Institutes of Health, conducted a series of experiments comparing the novel coronavirus with the SARS virus (a similar coronavirus that led to an outbreak back in 2003).

為了測試病毒的存活時間，美國國家衛(wèi)生研究院下屬的蒙大拿州落基山實驗室的科學家們進行了一系列實驗，將這種新型冠狀病毒與SARS病毒(2003年導致疫情爆發(fā)的類似冠狀病毒)進行了比較。

In the lab, "they'd pick up the virus from the surfaces that had been contaminated and then put [the virus] into cell cultures," he explains. Then the researchers documented whether the virus could infect those cells in the dish. They did this multiple times, for both the viruses, at various time points.

在實驗室里，“他們從被污染的表面提取病毒，然后把病毒放入細胞培養(yǎng)中，”他解釋說。然后研究人員記錄了病毒是否會感染培養(yǎng)皿中的細胞。他們在不同的時間點對這兩種病毒做了多次這樣的實驗。

"Big picture, the [two viruses] look very similar to each other in terms of their stability in these environments," Lloyd-Smith says.

“總的來說，(兩種病毒)在這些環(huán)境中的穩(wěn)定性看起來非常相似，”勞埃德·史密斯說。

Lloyd-Smith says these findings establish a good ballpark estimate for the survivability of the virus on these surfaces. "In a laboratory experiment, the conditions are pretty carefully controlled and constant," he says. By comparison, "in the real world, conditions fluctuate" — conditions like temperature, humidity and light. So the survivability may vary, too.

勞埃德·史密斯說，這些發(fā)現(xiàn)為病毒在這些表面的生存能力建立了一個大致的估計。他說:“在實驗室的實驗中，條件得到了很好的控制，而且是恒定的。”相比之下，“在現(xiàn)實世界中，情況是波動的”，比如溫度、濕度和光線。所以生存能力也可能不同。

For instance, if the virus contaminates a sunny windowsill or countertop, it may not last as long.

例如，如果病毒污染了陽光充足的窗臺或臺面，它可能不會持續(xù)那么久。