Forget retail therapy for some relief from that winter cold - a study by Swiss scientists, released last week, revealed that the flu virus can nestle and survive on banknotes for more than two weeks.
Scientists from Geneva's University Hospital were asked by a Swiss bank to carry out the study amid worries that a flu pandemic could be prolonged thanks to the millions of bank notes in circulation, Le Temps newspaper reported. Between 20 and 100 million banknotes change hands each day in Switzerland alone, it said.
The researchers left small samples of the flu virus on used banknotes which were then left at room temperature. Although the virus only survived in most cases for a few hours, certain highly concentrated samples proved resistant for several days.
PHOTO: EPA
In the worst case, if the virus was mixed with human mucus on the banknote, it could survive for two and a half weeks, Le Temps said.
"This unexpected resilience of the virus suggests that this sort of inert, non-biological support should not be overlooked in pandemic planning," chief researcher Yves Thomas told the paper.
The team will now do further research to see how much of a factor banknotes might be in flu transmission, though Thomas stressed that the main risks remain airborne transmission and direct human contact. (AFP)
為了防止感冒，最好打消購物治療法的念頭。瑞士科學家上週公布的一項研究結果顯示，流感病毒可能附著並存活在鈔票上超過兩週之久。
瑞士法文《時代日報》報導指出，在一片憂心市面上流通的大量鈔票可能延長全國流感疫情的關切聲中，日內瓦大學附屬醫院研究人員受一間瑞士銀行委託進行研究；報導中提到，光是在瑞士，每天就有兩千萬到一億張鈔票在市面上流通。
研究人員將一小部分流感病毒樣本放在舊鈔上，然後置於室溫下；雖然在大部份情況下病毒只能存活數小時，但某些高濃縮的病毒樣本能存活數天之久。
《時代日報》指出，最壞的情況是，若鈔票上的病毒混合了人體黏液，病毒就能存活兩週半之久。
「病毒的頑強超乎預期，這顯示在流行病計畫中，人們不能小覷鈔票這種無生命的、非生物的附著體，」主要研究員伊弗斯．湯瑪士向《時代日報》表示。
研究小組將進一步研究鈔票對病毒傳播的具體影響，但湯瑪士強調，流感病毒主要還是透過空氣和人體直接接觸傳染。
（法新社／翻譯：袁星塵）
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