Chlorine efficacy against bacteriophage Phi6, a surrogate for enveloped human viruses, on porous and non-porous surfaces at varying temperatures and humidity

While efficacy of chlorine against Phi6, a widely-used surrogate for pathogenic enveloped viruses, is well-documented, surfaces common to low-resource contexts are under-researched. We evaluated seven surfaces (stainless steel, plastic, nitrile, tarp, cloth, concrete, wood) and three environmental conditions-temperature (4, 25, 40 degrees C), relative humidity (RH) (23, 85%), and soiling-to determine Phi6 recoverability and the efficacy of disinfection with 0.5% NaOCl. Overall, Phi6 recovery was >4 log(10) PFU/mL on most surfaces after drying 1 hour at all temperature/humidity conditions. After disinfection, all non-porous test conditions (48/48) achieved >= 4 LRV at 1 and 5 minutes of exposure; significantly more non-porous surfaces met >= 4 LRV than porous (p < 0.001). Comparing porous surfaces, significantly fewer wood samples met >= 4 LRV than cloth (p < 0.001); no differences were observed between concrete and either wood (p = 0.083) or cloth (p = 0.087). Lastly, no differences were observed between soil and no-soil conditions for all surfaces (p = 0.712). This study highlights infectious Phi6 is recoverable across a range of surfaces and environmental conditions, and confirms the efficacy of chlorine disinfection. We recommend treating all surfaces with suspect contamination as potentially infectious, and disinfecting with 0.5% NaOCl for the minimum contact time required for the target enveloped virus (e.g. Ebola, SARS-CoV-2).

Automated summary

This study evaluated the efficacy of disinfection with 0.5% NaOCl against Phi6 virus on various surfaces and under different environmental conditions. The results showed that non-porous surfaces had better disinfection efficacy, while wood had relatively poor disinfection efficacy. The study highlighted the recoverability of Phi6 virus on a range of surfaces and confirmed the effectiveness of chlorine disinfection.