TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title page    –         –         –         –         –         –         –         –         i

Certification –         –         –         –         –         –         –         –         ii

Dedication   –         –         –         –         –         –         –         –         iii

Acknowledgements         –         –         –         –         –         –         iv-v

Table of contents   –         –         –         –         –         –         –         vi-vii

       CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

1.1     Background of the Study –         –         –         –         –         –         1-2

CHAPTER TWO

2.0     Fomite and Communicable Disease: – General Overview  –         2-5

2.1     Fomite         –         –         –         –         –         –         –         –         5-6

2.2     History of fomite- Related Research    –         –         –         –         6-7

2.3     Causes Communicable Disease  –         –         –         –         –         7-9

2.4     Transmission of Communicable/Infection Diseases           –         9-10

2.4.1  Vector-borne Transmission        –         –         –         –         –         11

2.4.2  Airborne Transmission    –         –         –         –         –         –         11-12

2.4.3  Common Vehicle Transmission –         –         –         –         –         12-13

2.4.4  Contact Transmission      –         –         –         –         –         –         13

          CHAPTER THREE

3.0     Roles of fomite in communicable Disease Transmission   –         14-15

3.1     Pathogens viability on surfaces  –         –         –         –         –         15-18

3.2     Epidemiological Evidence of pathogens

transmission via fomite    –         –         –         –         –         –         18-19

3.3     Role of fomite Route in the spread of diseases         –         –         20-21

3.4     Interventions to control fomite transmission  –         –         –         21

3.5     Future Challenges –         –         –         –         –         –         –         22

CHAPTER FOUR: SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

4.1     Summary     –         –         –         –         –         –         –         –         21

4.2     Conclusion  –         –         –         –         –         –         –         –         21-22

            References

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

1.1     Background of the study

A fomite refers to an inanimate object that can carry and spread disease  infectious agents. A fomite can also be addressed as passive vectors. There is a huge array of everyday objects that can become fomite if they come into contact with infectious agents such as infectious microbes, viruses, bacteria and fungi. (Cramer, 2011). Inanimate objects which become contaminated by micro-organisms and serve as route of transmissions of such organisms are called fomites (Barrie et al., 1994).

A communicable disease is any disease that passes between people or animals. It is sometimes referred to as infectious or transmissible diseases. Pathogens, including bacteria, viruses, fungi, and protozoa, cause communicable diseases. Transmission via the hands is the most common type of disease spread. It leads to other fomites being infected through direct contacts, which is why hand washing is so important in the fight against the spread of infectious diseases. Contributing to the complexity is an incomplete understanding of indirect contact transmission. Indirect contact transmission refers to person-to-person transmission of disease via an intermediate fomite (i.e, inanimate object acting as a carrier of infectious diseases). There are a number of ways fomites can be contaminated with infectious disease, including contact with bodily fluids, body parts or other fomites and settling from airborne particles by talking, sneezing, coughing or vomiting (Hota, 2004; Boone and Gerba, 2007).

Contamination of a fomite may provide no obvious or visible evidence of infectious disease presence. Additionally the routes by which an infectious agent contaminates a fomite are equally able to infect a susceptible individual without the intermediate fomite. Therefore, it’s often difficult to determine whether a transmission event occurred directly between an infected host and a susceptible host, or the event occurred indirectly via of fomite.