TY - JOUR AU - Escudero, Dolores AU - Boga, José Antonio AU - Fernández, Javier AU - Forcelledo, Lorena AU - Balboa, Salvador AU - Albillos, Rodrigo AU - Astola, Iván AU - García-Prieto, Emilio AU - Álvarez-Argüelles, Marta Elena AU - Martín, Gabriel AU - Jiménez, Josu AU - Vázquez, Fernando PY - 2020 DA - 2020/11/23 TI - SARS-CoV-2 analysis on environmental surfaces collected in an intensive care unit: keeping Ernest Shackleton’s spirit JO - Intensive Care Medicine Experimental SP - 68 VL - 8 IS - 1 AB - Intensive care unit workers are at high risk of acquiring COVID-19 infection, especially when performing invasive techniques and certain procedures that generate aerosols (< 5 μm). Therefore, one of the objectives of the health systems should implement safety practices to minimize the risk of contagion among these health professionals. Monitoring environmental contamination of SARS-CoV-2 may help to determine the potential of the environment as a transmission medium in an area highly exposed to SARS-CoV-2, such as an intensive care unit. The objective of the study was to analyze the environmental contamination by SARS-CoV-2 on surfaces collected in an intensive care unit, which is dedicated exclusively to the care of patients with COVID-19 and equipped with negative pressure of – 10 Pa and an air change rate of 20 cycles per hour. Furthermore, all ICU workers were tested for COVID-19 by quantitative RT-PCR and ELISA methods. SN - 2197-425X UR - https://doi.org/10.1186/s40635-020-00349-5 DO - 10.1186/s40635-020-00349-5 ID - Escudero2020 ER -