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Background: Viruses cause a major proportion of human infections, especially gastroenteritis and respiratory infections in children and adults. Indirect transmission between humans via environmental surfaces may play a role in infections, but methods to investigate this have been sparse., Aim: To validate and test efficient and reliable procedures to detect multiple human pathogenic viruses on surfaces., Methods: The study was divided into two parts. In Part A, six combinations of three different swabs (consisting of cotton, foamed cotton, or polyester head) and two different elution methods (direct lysis or immersion in alkaline glycine buffer before lysis) were tested for efficient recovery of human norovirus GII.7 and mengovirus from artificially contaminated surfaces. In Part B we determined the detection limit for norovirus GI.1 and GII.3 using the best procedure found in Part A linked with a commercial multiplex real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction detection assay., Findings: Combining the polyester swab with direct lysis allowed recovery down to 100 and 10 genome copies/cm(2) of norovirus GI.1 and GII.3, respectively. This procedure resulted in the significant highest recovery of both norovirus and mengovirus, whereas no differences in amplification efficiencies were observed between the different procedures., Conclusion: The results indicate that it is possible to detect low concentrations of virus on environmental surfaces. We therefore suggest that a polyester swab, followed by direct lysis, combined with a multiplex qPCR detection assay is an efficient screening tool that merits study of different respiratory and gastrointestinal viruses on environment surfaces., (Copyright © 2016 The Healthcare Infection Society. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The number of children in daycare centers (DCCs) is rising. This increases exposure to microorganisms and infectious diseases. Little is known about which bacteria and viruses are present in the DCC environment and where they are located. In the study described in this article, the authors set out to determine the prevalence of pathogenic bacteria and viruses and to find the most contaminated fomites in DCCs. Fifteen locations in each DCC were sampled for bacteria, respiratory viruses, and gastrointestinal viruses. The locations were in the toilet, kitchen, and playroom areas and included nursery pillows, toys, and tables, among other things. Coliform bacteria were primarily found in the toilet and kitchen areas whereas nasopharyngeal bacteria were found mostly on toys and fabric surfaces in the playroom. Respiratory viruses were omnipresent in the DCC environment, especially on the toys.

Background: The rising number of children in daycare nurseries increases opportunities for the transmission of infectious diseases. Pathogens may be transmitted directly from child to child via sneezing, coughing and touching, or indirectly via the environment. Toys are among the fomites with the highest pathogen load, but their role in disease transmission is unknown., Aim: To determine if washing and disinfection of toys can reduce sickness absence and microbial pathogen load in the nursery environment., Methods: Twelve nurseries (caring for 587 children) were randomized to intervention and control groups. The intervention consisted of washing and disinfection of toys and linen every two weeks for three months by a commercial cleaning company. The extent and causes of sickness absence among the children were recorded in both groups before and after introduction of the intervention. Ten sampling points in each nursery were examined for bacteria and respiratory viruses., Results: The presence of respiratory virus DNA/RNA was widespread, but very few pathogenic bacteria were found in the environment. The intervention reduced the presence of adenovirus [odds ratio (OR) 2.4, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.1-5.0], rhinovirus (OR 5.3, 95% CI 2.3-12.4) and respiratory syncytial virus (OR 4.1, 95% CI 1.5-11.2) compared with the control group, but the intervention had no effect on sickness absence or disease patterns in the nurseries., Conclusion: Although cleaning and disinfection of toys every two weeks can decrease the microbial load in nurseries, it does not appear to reduce sickness absence among nursery children., (Copyright © 2014 The Healthcare Infection Society. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)