Author: Akhmetova Aigerim
Editor: Merentsova Anastasia
The etiological agent of the 2019 coronavirus infection (COVID-19) took only a few short months to spread widely. There is evidence that the virus does not survive well in the external environment. However, several experimental studies in this area indicate the opposite: a cultured live virus from aerosols and surfaces dies a few hours after the invasion of the external environment.
Evidence from case reports of COVID-19 transmission suggests that aerogenic transmission is dominant and that proximity and ventilation are key elements of transmission.
There is interesting information that the patient presents the greatest contagious danger (the danger of the spread of the virus) about a day before the onset of characteristic symptoms, which then decreases within a week after the onset of symptoms. At the same time, not a single case of transmission of infection was recorded at later stages of the development of the disease.
In the same study, it was found that the virus has a high survival rate at low temperatures, but is sensitive to heat, and the destruction of the virus occurs after 5 minutes at a temperature of 70 ° C. In addition, the COVID-19 pathogen cannot be cultivated in the laboratory after "meeting" with various disinfectants, which experimentally confirms the effectiveness of using detergents.
To date, there is compelling evidence of SARS-CoV-2 transmission by airborne droplets, transmission to some pets and between them. Less common is the vertical transmission of infection (from a sick pregnant mother to a child). The transmission of the virus through various organic fluids, as well as such transmission routes of COVID-19, as sexual, fecal-oral and invasive, remains in question.
Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32941052/
