3 ms·
What about just cleaning? i.e. wiping down with non-antibacterial soap. I know viruses are not bacteria, so I'm a bit off topic, but still interested.
by patejam 8y ago
What about just cleaning? i.e. wiping down with non-antibacterial soap.
I know viruses are not bacteria, so I'm a bit off topic, but still interested.
- Fomite 8y agoCleaning removes things pretty uniformly, but also doesn't result in a sterile (or even really quasi-sterile) surface. Disinfection is a pretty important next step after cleaning.
- namibj 8y agoThere are ways to clean that are so effective that even endospores will be removed, though strong oxidative disinfectants seem to generally be more effective. Something like strong UV-C irradiation or a wash with ethylene oxide should result in the destruction of all life remaining on a washed surface.
- Fomite 8y agoUV-C irradiation generally falls under "disinfection" because if you haven't cleaned the surface of gross contaminants first, it doesn't work very well.
- namibj 8y agoBut it should be sufficient to have it be visually non-dirty. UV-C get's through a thin oily film or such non-thick coverage...
- btilly 8y agoAs long as there is a way to resist our cleaning efforts, we'll select for pathogens that succeed. And with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biofilm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biofilm there are ways to beat straight soap. So we're selecting for aggressively starting biofilms.