TY  - JOUR
A1  - Pfänder, Stephanie
A1  - Helfritz, Fabian Arnold
A1  - Siddharta, Anindya
A1  - Todt, Daniel
A1  - Behrendt, Patrick
A1  - Heyden, Julia
A1  - Riebesehl, Nina
A1  - Willmann, Wiebke
A1  - Steinmann, Jörg
A1  - Münch, Jan
A1  - Ciesek, Sandra
A1  - Steinmann, Eike
T1  - Environmental stability and infectivity of hepatitis C virus (HCV) in different human body fluids
T2  - Frontiers in microbiology
N2  - Background: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a hepatotropic, blood-borne virus, but in up to one-third of infections of the transmission route remained unidentified. Viral genome copies of HCV have been identified in several body fluids, however, non-parental transmission upon exposure to contaminated body fluids seems to be rare. Several body fluids, e.g., tears and saliva, are renowned for their antimicrobial and antiviral properties, nevertheless, HCV stability has never been systematically analyzed in those fluids.
Methods: We used state of the art infectious HCV cell culture techniques to investigate the stability of HCV in different body fluids to estimate the potential risk of transmission via patient body fluid material. In addition, we mimicked a potential contamination of HCV in tear fluid and analyzed which impact commercially available contact lens solutions might have in such a scenario.
Results: We could demonstrate that HCV remains infectious over several days in body fluids like tears, saliva, semen, and cerebrospinal fluid. Only hydrogen-peroxide contact lens solutions were able to efficiently inactivate HCV in a suspension test.
Conclusion: These results indicate that HCV, once it is present in various body fluids of infected patients, remains infective and could potentially contribute to transmission upon direct contact.
KW  - hepatitis C virus
KW  - infectivity
KW  - saliva
KW  - semen
KW  - tear
KW  - contact lens solution
KW  - cerebrospinal fluid
Y1  - 2018
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/54603
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-546033
SN  - 1664-302X
N1  - Copyright © 2018 Pfaender, Helfritz, Siddharta, Todt, Behrendt, Heyden, Riebesehl, Willmann, Steinmann, Münch, Ciesek and Steinmann. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
VL  - 9
IS  - Art. 504
SP  - 1
EP  - 8
PB  - Frontiers Media
CY  - Lausanne
ER  -