Chemical disinfection of virus‐contaminated surfaces

Chemical disinfection is widely practiced as a means of controlling and preventing the spread of infectious diseases. Although disinfection of bacteria has been widely studied, much less attention has been paid to the virucidal potential of commonly used disinfectants in spite of the low infective dose of many human pathogenic viruses. This review considers what is known about the disinfection of viruses and the virucidal properties of different classes of disinfectant chemicals. It focuses on virus disinfection from a practical viewpoint and also critically evaluates the testing techniques currently used for examining the efficacy of disinfectant products.