Washing your hands frequently is one of the essential barrier gestures to limit the spread of Covid-19 and protect yourself from it.
A gesture that appears even more essential in the light of a study conducted by Japanese researchers.
They observed that the coronavirus remained active on the skin for nine hours.
In comparison, the pathogen that causes influenza survives on the skin for about 1.8 hours, says the study published this month in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.
"The nine hour survival of SARS-CoV-2 (the strain of the virus that causes Covid-19 disease) on human skin may increase the risk of transmission by contact compared to the IAV (Influenza A Virus or influenza A), thus accelerating the pandemic, ”says the study.
Japanese researchers tested skin samples taken from autopsy specimens about a day after death.
Both the coronavirus and the influenza virus are inactivated within 15 seconds by the application of ethanol, used in hand sanitizers.
Hand hygiene reduces the risk
"The longer survival of SARS-CoV-2 on the skin increases the risk of transmission by contact, but hand hygiene can reduce this risk," said this study.
The study therefore obviously supports the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO) for regular and thorough washing of hands in order to limit the transmission of the virus.
At least 1,105,691 deaths and nearly 39.4 million infections have been identified since the start of the pandemic in China at the end of last year, according to a count made on Saturday by AFP.
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