Mpox Virus Can Survive On Surfaces Up To 30 Days, Study Says

On the surface of things, this looks like a problem. A study published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases found that mpox viruses—formerly known as monkeypox viruses—remained on stainless steel discs and able to reproduce for at least several days. A research team from Ruhr University in Bochum and Heinrich-Heine-University in Düsseldorf, Germany, found this to be the case whether the temperature was 4°C, 22°C, or 37°C, which corresponds to 39.2°F, 71.6°F, and 98.6°F, effectively. In fact, in some cases, the viruses were still around and potentially able to infect people for up to 30 days. That’s longer than some Hollywood celebrity marriages have lasted.

There’s was also a cool finding that was really not-so-cool, unless you happen to be a mpox virus. The cooler the temperature, the longer the mpox viruses stayed viable. For example, at a balmy 37°C, there was no longer viruses capable of reproducing once they got past the six- to seven-day mark. However, at a cooler, more room temperatury 22°C, this threshold bumped up to 10 to 11 days. Things got even longer at 4°C, which would be more towards an igloo room temperature. At this temperature, the virus just kept hanging on, in the words of The Supremes and Kim Wilde, not really plummeting in amount until after 20 days. That meant that you might have to wait a supremely wild 30 days or so for infectious versions of the virus to completely disappear.

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Fortunately, this time can be greatly shorted by the use of disinfectants, you know the kind of things that you can use on surfaces but shouldn’t inject into your body. They tested five different commercially available surface disinfectants. Both the alcohol-based disinfectants and aldehyde-based disinfectants were able to efficiently inactivate the mpox viruses. That wasn’t the case with the hydrogen peroxide–based product, though. So if you are thinking of cleaning your One Direction shrine, you may want to use an alcohol-based infectant, as the the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends. Note that the WHO doesn’t have recommendation specifically for One Direction shrines but rather for surfaces in general.

Chances are not all of the surfaces in your living quarters and workplace are stainless steel. That would be kind of weird and not very conducive to having, you know, friends. For example, sleeping on a stainless steel bed mattress would not be comfortable. Sex on such a bed mattress would be even harder, literally and figuratively. It’s not yet clear how long the mpox virus may remain on other types of surfaces and materials besides stainless steel. It’s also not clear how other environmental conditions such as humidity and the sun’s rays may affect the survival of the mpox virus on surfaces.

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All of this is a reminder that you don’t have to have sex to catch mpox, formerly known as monkeypox. You could potentially catch the virus from a stainless steel surface whether you have sex with that surface or simply touch it. Of course, just because there is some virus particles on a surface doesn’t mean that there is necessarily enough of the virus to cause an infection.

All of this is also a reminder to keep surfaces clean and disinfected. This is especially the case for high touch surfaces such as doorknobs, handles, faucets, buttons on your portable massager, faucets, and Jason Momoa’s abs. This means using disinfectants that can really kill viruses and not just make things look clean on the surface